OCTOBER 14 – ORADELL, NJ – For an early round of the Bergen County Junior Varsity Soccer Tournament, this was a very good soccer game.  While I could say, we may have been a little flat-footed at times, the Crusaders dominated play.  A miscommunication in the first half led to a Don Bosco Prep goal, putting BC in a hole from which they would have to climb. 
     Climb they did.  Honestly, the team dominated play, possessing the ball for perhaps 70% of the game, maybe more in the second half, until they scored the go-ahead goal in the games 63^rd minute.
     BC took it to another level, pressuring the Don Bosco goal, but may have fallen into the old rope-a-dope trap.  October 20, 1974.  Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).  Muhammed Ali leaned back against the ropes and allowed World Heavyweight Champion, and creator of the George Foreman Grill, George Foreman, and allowed Foreman to pummel him.  All the while Ali covered up and taunted Foreman, "Is that all you got, George?"
     Not sure the Ironmen had that strategy in mind, but after 79 minutes of BC attack, a ball was popped deep into the Crusader end, where a DBP baller kicked the ball past BC's keeper for the game winner with 42 seconds remaining.
 

TEAMS	1	2	FINAL
Don Bosco Prep	1	1	2
Bergen Catholic	0	1	1

 
JUNIOR VARSITY COUNTY TOURNAMENT HISTORY:   BC has played in a number of county finals on the JV level since the tournament begain in or around 1981.  It was known that year as the "Suburban Tournament."  BC fell to Paramus 2-1.  The Crusaders won titles in 1995, 2023 and 2024 and fell in 2002 and 2008.
COUNTY FINALS:       6                COUNTY TITLES:        3