As the clock was winding down with roughly 20 seconds to go, a Tenafly player shot the ball from 20 yards out toward the bottom right corner of the goal. Lo and behold, senior goalie Jake Fiore dove with his arms fully extended making the dramatic save. The save was one of nine for Fiore, a team captain, as the boys’ soccer team won a close one with a score of 1-0.

According to head coach Mark Torrie, Fiore’s save was “clutch.” He added that “[the team] needed [the save] but that’s what senior captains are supposed to do, so I was thrilled that he was able to preserve the win.”

However, Torrie mentioned that the team played poorly against Tenafly and would see difficulties if they played the same way against Ramapo this Sunday in the Bergen County tournament.

Most of the game and especially during the first half, NVOT’s team was on their heels on defense as Tenafly dominated with many offensive scoring opportunities. In addition to Tenafly’s nine shots on goal, they had possession of the ball in NVOT’s territory for most of the game.  

However, that all seemed to change in the last ten minutes of the game in which NVOT had at least five major scoring opportunities, one of which turned into a game winning goal.

Sophomore Danny Yun scored that game winner, assisted by senior Alex Waiser. “[The goal] felt really great. It made it 1-0 with around six minutes to go, so it was a really hype moment,” Yun said.

According to Torrie, “Danny’s goal was massive. We’ve been trying to get a lot of people to step up since [senior and captain] Peter [Livanis] got most of the goals and a lot of teams key in on that, so for Danny to get a goal as the game winner was great.”

Before entering the game on Tuesday, there were a lot of important factors on the line for NVOT (7-4-1) in their preparation against Tenafly (6-5-1). The team was coming off of a crucial win in the quarterfinals in the county tournament against Cliffside Park. Also, the team is chasing Pascack Valley for the league title; the NVOT boys’ squad is just one game behind with three league contests remaining.

Regarding the match with Tenafly, Torrie mentioned, “it’s always good to have a bad game as weird as that sounds, because it allows you to refocus and get used to what you need to be good at.” Ultimately, Torrie feels confident that they will be prepared for Ramapo and live up to the “hype moments” such as Yun’s.