Youth/High School Soccer
Northern Burlington shed underdog tag with Coaches Cup win over Saint Augustine
While an underdog on paper, Northern Burlington viewed themselves as an underrated team instead as an 8th seed heading into Saturday’s South Jersey Coaches Cup final against Saint Augustine Prep.
With a spirited crowd behind them, the Greyhounds confirmed that with a hard fought 2-1 win over the Hermits to capture the school’s first South Jersey Coaches Cup trophy.
“Everyone thought we were underdogs coming into this game, but we knew we weren’t,” senior forward Brody Sheehan said. “We were the better team and we showed that today.”
Riding a 16-match win streak and unbeaten against public school competition since their first round upset by 16 seed Lenape in the 2023 Coaches Cup, Saint Augustine looked the part of the favorite in the early stages of the match. Northern Burlington goalkeeper J.J. Murray was forced to make his first save seconds into the match and was able to deny a 1v1 chance against junior Luke Whelan minutes later but was unable to keep charismatic goal-scorer Michael Coluzzi from capitalizing with the game’s opening goal on another 1v1 chance midway through the first half.
Coluzzi was back in the box minutes later, this time drawing a defender out to the end line before sending the ball across the face of goal to a waiting John Lamanteer but the fellow senior was unable to redirect the pass on target with Murray rushing on and the attempt went wide.
Two minutes later Northern Burlington leveled the score on a curling strike from Elijah Font from 20 yards out. From there it was game on for the Greyhounds.
“I think they just got kind of hit by the moment,” head coach Justin Faust said of the early deficit. “But then they adapted and we got the goal against the run of play and after that especially started to believe a little bit and found their footing.”
Font was unable to continue in the second half so Northern Burlington was going to need to find a way to win without their star attacking player.
While Murray kept Saint Augustine in check on one end commanding his box, it was a handball whistled in the box that ended up delivering the dagger. A confident Joe Stevens stepped up to the spot and buried the penalty with a hefty 16-minute helping of time left for the Hermits attack against a Northern Burlington team cautious but brimming with hope that a fully committed defensive effort would deliver a trophy.
Sheehan’s hold-up play factored in heavily in the closing minutes of the match and at times Northern Burlington looked more likely to add a third than Saint Augustine was to find an equalizer. For his part, Murray continued to command his line on set pieces and the seconds ticked away adding urgency to every throw-in or clearance attempt.
When the full time whistle finally blew, Sheehan darted toward the stands, his teammates trailing behind, many of them removing their jerseys as they jumped toward the fence where friends were waiting.
“It feels a little unreal right now, I’m kinda soaking it in,” Faust said, noting how many of the players he’s known since they were young kids, long before they got to high school. “I’ve watched these boys grow and I’m just really proud of them.”
