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Cape May Tech defender Mike Bryan clears the ball away from Wildwood Catholic's Sean Dougherty.
By BRIAN CUNNIFF
STONE HARBOR — The Cape May Tech boys soccer team kept its solid start to the season going at the expense of a local rival Tuesday afternoon.
The Hawks came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to post a 5-3 victory over Wildwood Catholic, the team’s second victory of the season over the Crusaders.
Tech improved to 5-3 on the season. Two of the three losses were by one goal.
“We’re coming together as a team and playing as a unit,” said first-year head coach Jon Harris. “There’s no unselfishness on this team.”
Mike Brown, a four-year starter for the Hawks, had a hand in four of his team’s five tallies, posting two goals and two assists. He tied the game with a goal on a breakaway early in the second half. He was then credited with an assist after his shot off another breakaway was saved by Wildwood Catholic’s Tyler Cruz before teammate Jacob Perez headed home the rebound for the game-winning goal.
Brown iced the victory with his 11th goal of the season with less than a minute to play.
“It’s a great game for the kids to win because a lot of them are playing against their friends,” Harris said.
Cooper Gehring and Anthony Paluch also added goals in the win. Thomas Buchanan chipped in with an assist.
Tech beat Wildwood Catholic by the same goal differential in a 6-4 result during the first week of the season. The Hawks also have wins over Holy Spirit, St. Joseph and Pennsauken Tech.
“Every kid on the field is helping us,” Harris said.
Cape May Tech is hoping to qualify for the South Jersey Group I playoffs. Qualifying isn’t all that difficult for most programs since 16 teams in each section make it. But Tech has a school rule that requires its teams to be at least .500 in order to accept a playoff bid.
“We’ve stressed to the kids that our goal in the playoffs,” Harris said. “We haven’t made it in a while and we have a good chance at it.”
Sean Dougherty scored two goals and Matt Moretti also tallied for Wildwood Catholic (1-6), which is in a rebuilding phase after losing 10 starters from last year’s team.
