PHOTOS/RECAP: Bridgewater claims Orange County Boys Soccer Championship in PKs over SunRidge

Everything came down to this one final moment.

As Bridgewater Middle School’s Samuel Suarez approached the ball, he took a big breath and glanced over at Cole Cunningham, who was in goal for SunRidge Middle School.

After a scoreless overtime period, the Bobcats were up 4-3 in penalty kicks and all Suarez had to do was find the back of the net to hand his team the Orange County Boys Soccer Championship.

“I was so nervous, oh my God,” Suarez said. “Everybody was shooting to the left and was like, ‘Nah, I’m going to shoot it to the right.’ I did it and it worked.”

Suarez planted a hard boot into the ball — sailing it past Cunningham. 

The celebration that followed was immediate as Suarez was met by teammate and goalie Weber Nakagawa, before the whole team swarmed him out in front of the Bridgewater faithful who made the trip over to West Orange High School Wednesday, Oct. 16.

Going into Wednesday night’s game, the Bobcats and Eagles had played each other once. Based on that game, Bridgewater Head Coach Josh Kennedy knew his side was in for a fight.

“We played them first game of the season and we beat them 1-0, so coming into the game you don’t really know what’s going to happen because 1-0 is not that big of a victory,” Kennedy said. “I think it feels great and I think I’m still processing. The boys are really excited and I’m proud of them — they worked hard and they deserve it.”

Both teams had found their groove as they arrived to the championship game, with Bridgewater looking for that final win to cap off an undefeated season. Meanwhile, SunRidge stood at 8-3.

From the start, the Bobcats looked the most comfortable of the two teams, as they maintained a ton of possession in the Eagles’ side of the field. 

Less than five minutes into the game the Bobcats got their first corner of the match, before getting a few solid looks at goal.  Francisco Martinez had the first good shot at the goal for the Bobcats, though the ball went just wide of the iron.

After that shot things started to even out a bit as the Eagles began to find their footing and a flow in the game — kicking off with a corner at the 11:35 mark before Nakagawa was pressured and forced to make a quality save with 9:43 left in the half to keep the score knotted up at 0-0.

The Eagles would get one last opportunity before the half when Finlay Prain came close to putting SunRidge ahead with five seconds to go in the first half, but the ball sailed a bit on him and flew just left of goal.

“I think it feels great and I think I’m still processing. The boys are really excited and I’m proud of them — they worked hard and they deserve it.”

— Josh Kennedy

The second half would continue the stalemate between the two schools, with both exchanging near chances — the first of which came less than two minutes in when SunRidge’s Daniel Hernandez tried a shot of his own on goal that was promptly stopped. 

About nine minutes later, with 9:58 left in regulation, Bridgewater’s Ricardo Davila would have the best chance of the night, as he took the ball deep into the Eagles’ final third — going one-on-one with Cunningham before pushing the ball wide left and crumbling to the ground in disappointment.

The remaining time in regulation passed without much action, and so did the five-minute golden goal overtime period. All that was left now was penalty kicks, which saw Bridgewater’s Nicolas Mujica step up first.

“I was mostly thinking about where I wanted the ball to go,” Mujica said. “I didn’t want to miss — if I missed I pretty much knew that the other team would be more confident in their penalties and that really brought me to locate the ball better.”

Mujica would easily sink the first penalty for the Bobcats, before SunRidge’s Jacob Bignon responded in kind. From there Bridgewater’s Caleb Henson would knock in the Bobcats’ second penalty, while SunRidge’s Nicholas Sirois answered to tie it up at 2-2.

SunRidge, despite being the underdog, seemed to be keeping pace with Bridgewater until the third round of penalties came about. Following the Bobcats’ third successful PK by Dominic Vosilla, SunRidge’s Nathan Cullen stepped up to the ball and drilled it right off the post — sending it careening away from goal.

The miss put Bridgewater in perfect position.

Davila would knock in his penalty for Bridgewater, before Prain hit what would be the last penalty for SunRidge. What followed was the game-sealing penalty from Suarez to give the Bobcats the 5-3 victory — capping off a perfect 12-0 season with a title.

“I don’t know if anyone has done that before,” Kennedy said. “It feels good, but I mean it’s my first year, so I don’t know what anything else feels like.”