Morris Hills stuns Delbarton, the County!

By Declan MacManus - special to MCHSS.net

Rodrigo Santiago had a decision to make, but it turned
out to be a rather easy one.

The senior was about to take a free kick for Morris
Hills with under 12 minutes remaining in a scoreless
Morris County Tournament final on Sunday afternoon
against top seeded Delbarton at Cougar Field in
Chatham.

Given that the ball was placed about 19 yards away
from the goal, near the top left corner of the 18-yard
box, a shot on net seemed improbable, especially with
a wall of Delbarton defenders stationed 10 yards away.

A cross toward the far post, where one of his
teammates might be able to re-direct the ball on goal,
might have been a more likely option.

But then something caught Santiago's eye -- an small
opening on the near-side of the goal. If he could
place the shot just right, he could perhaps give
Morris Hills the tiebreaking goal.

``Those my favorite kind of kicks to take,'' he said
``I practice them all the time.''

Most of those shots aren't taken with ball sitting
cleanly on an artificial surface as it was for
Santiago in this moment. But none of those practice
kicks were taken with the biggest championship upset
in the 32-year history of the MCT potentially hanging
in the balance.

``I was thinking of hitting it as a cross,'' Santiago
said. ``But then I saw that the near post was wide
open. I didn't know if we'd have another chance like
that one, so I had to take it.''

The resulting kick sliced around the wall and nestled
inside the near-side upper left corner with 11:31
remaining, enabling Morris Hills to defeat Delbarton,
1-0, for its first MCT title.

Morris Hills (16-4), which was 4-3 when the tournament
was seeded on Sept. 26, won the title as the 11th
seed. Delbarton (18-1) was seeded first, ranked No. 1
in the state and as high as No. 2 in one national
poll.

``Morris Hills deserves a lot of credit,'' Delbarton
coach David Donovan said. ``They played with a lot of
heart and discipline and they were a hungry team. I'm
happy for them.''

Morris Hills won four of its five tournament games by
shutout, and goalkeeper Rafael Diaz, who was awarded
the Otto Haas Memorial Award as the tournament MVP,
made several key saves to defeat Delbarton, which also
had a few of its chances glance off the posts and
crossbar, including a header by Ben Tolkowsky with
under 10 seconds left in the game.

Much of the time after Santiago's goal was spent in
the opposite end of the field, but Morris Hills was
able to protect its lead.

``It felt as if the game would last forever,'' Morris
Hills coach Kevin Rosenberg said. ``Delbarton is so
dangerous on set pieces, and seemed as if they had 15
of them after we scored, but we defended them well and
everyone did their job.''

Santiago's goal, his 16th of the season, was not only
a payoff for the time he spent working on such
opportunites, it was also a chance to make good on a
vow he made to his teammates.

He was issued a red card for dissent in a 3-1 victory
over Summit on Oct. 3, causing him to serve a
mandatory two-game suspension that included a 1-0
victory at sixth-seeded Mendham in the first round.

``He has the green light to shoot in those
situations,'' Rosenberg said. ``He had made a point to
his teammates that if they made it past Mendham
without him, that he would get them the championship
and in the end, he did.''

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES: Morris Hills became the second
straight public school to win the title. Mendham
defeated Delbarton, 4-1, in last year's final. ... The
scariest moment of the game came when Rob Redmond of
Delbarton and Adam Katz of Morris Hills both left the
game after colliding with 5:35 to go. Redmond a cut on
his head and Katz had already missed five games this
season with a concussion. Neither player returned. ...
Morris Hills made its only previous championship
appearance in 1995, when it lost to Delbarton, 1-0.
... Delbarton is now 4-2-1 in MCT finals, all since
1995. ...The shutout was not only the 13th this season
for Morris Hills, it was also the first time in 26
games dating back to last season that Delbarton failed
to score.