Raiders poised for another deep postseason run
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Above, North Brunswick's Evans Ofori fires the ball to the net under pressure from Monroe's Brandon Sebastian during the Raiders' win on Oct. 12.

Stan Williston has been looking forward to the changing of the seasons.

Now in his 32nd season as the head coach of the North Brunswick boys soccer team, Williston has developed a knack for getting his squad prepared for this time of year, when every game could mean the end of the road.

"We always look at it as being three seasons in one - the preseason, regular season and postseason," the veteran coach said. "We use the first two to prepare for the postseason."

This year's "preparation" went well, with the Raiders rolling to an 11-2 mark through the regular season, and a chance at reclaiming their spot atop the White Division on the horizon. With a win over Perth Amboy they will earn a tie with Sayreville for the division title.

But at this point, Williston's team is turning its focus to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, which got under way this week with preliminary and first-round games.

Below, Raider goalie Justin Smith comes out of the net to make a stop in overtime.

North Brunswick, as expected, got the No. 2 seed behind Sayreville, the only team to beat the Raiders this fall, including a 3-1 win on Saturday.

"We had a good run through the first part of the season," Williston said, adding that he is confident in his team's chances as winning its third GMCT crown in a row.

But it certainly won't be easy.

"The GMC, from top to bottom, is very tough," Williston said. "Any team in the top 10 is capable of beating somebody else. It really comes down to which team has survived the season without getting to beat up, and who's hot at the right time.

"At this point, Sayreville's playing very well and deserved the top seed, Monroe can play, South Brunswick can play... it's a very balanced tournament. We're just looking to get our kids back to focusing on one game at a time. It's certainly going to be a challenge."

Fortunately, the Raiders enter the GMCT severely battle-tested, having played a brutal White Division schedule this season.

"Our division is pretty tough," the coach said. "Three of the top four teams in the GMCT are from the White Division, so obviously the seeding committee recognized how tough that division was this year."

As the two seed, the Raiders got a bye through the first two rounds. Colonia and Cardinal McCarrick played on Wednesday for the right to face 15th-seeded Piscataway in the first round tomorrow. Then, the winner of that game will take on North Brunswick on Monday.

"We'll either be playing a new team or a team for the third time (Colonia)," Williston said. "So it doesn't look like it's going to be easy from the very beginning."

The same can be said about the upcoming Central Jersey Group IV tournament, which will be seeded on Friday night, following the cutoff. As good as North Brunswick has been this year, they could be seeded as low as fourth or fifth come Friday night.

"The (CJ) Group IV tournament is monstrous this year," Williston said. "There are nine or 10 teams ranked in the top 20 in the state in that bracket. You have squads like Jackson, Rancocas Valley, Hillsborough, Howell (the likely top seed), Manalapan, East Brunswick, South Brunswick, and of course Sayreville. It's going to be a very tough tournament to get through."

But as the postseason gets under way, don't look for the Raiders to change anything up too much. After all, it will come as a surprise to no one when North Brunswick centers its offense around junior forward Ibrahim Kamara, one of the top offensive players in the state.

"Ibrahim is a tremendous striker, and we'll have to rely on him to get us goals," Williston said. "But if other teams are going to key on him, we're going to need to look to other people to find goals."

Williston also thinks that his team continued strong play on defense, and in particular in goal where senior goalie Justin Smith has played well, recording seven shutouts in 11 games, will determine how far this year's squad can advance.

"Defense wins championships, and hopefully our defense can continue to come through for us," the coach said. "We've been there before, and maybe that helps us a little bit."

Seasons change, but it seems like every season we're talking about Stan Williston's team winning championships.