So far, the season for OP soccer has been a roller coaster. After a strong week with convincing wins against New Providence and Linden, the Rams fell to Johnson and Union. However, the team did not let this discourage them leading up to their big Summit game on Saturday. Summit, according to NJ.com, is ranked 19th in the state and 2nd in Union County. Everyone understood that this was going to be a big game, and even though the guys knew Summit was going to be a tough opponent, they had no doubt that with the talent they had on the team this year, they would be able to wipe the floor with them. 

OP picked things up quickly in the game as Jacob Cordeiro played a 60 yard diagonal to the on running Marcelo Freire. Marcelo cut in on his right foot and curled the ball into the top right corner, leaving no chance for the Summit keeper. Marcelo contributed to the next goal as well where he played in a corner for Nick Jardim to get on the end of. Jardim made it 2-0 right before halftime with a header and after doing so ran toward the student section in celebration. All nine other field players followed him and the boys were pumped for the second half. Soon enough, OP goalie Jack Coyne got off his feet to retrieve a Summit cross where he then threw the ball out to an open Marcelo who was standing almost on the midfield line. The Rams had numbers going the other way and it was just too much to handle for the Summit backline. Marcelo played in Doug Colandrea who ran from his own 18 to the other. Doug dribbled past one defender and crossed the ball perfectly inside the six to an open Nick Jardim. Jardim bagged his second and OP went 3-0 up. The scoreline stayed the same for the remainder of the match, and it was a one-way contest. The Rams dominated on their home turf once again and did so against a team that is currently seen as one of New Jersey’s finest. It wasn’t just any lucky old high school soccer win. OP utterly destroyed Summit in pretty much every aspect of the game.

The whole team, but especially Coach Barresi, who had yet to coach a team that had beat Summit, was ecstatic by this victory. He and OP soccer were now the ones featured on the front page of NJ.com with an article labeling Oratory as the “King of Summit for the 1st Time in Nine Years”. This win was the first for Oratory over Summit in 9 years. The last time Oratory played Summit was in 2017 where Summit won 6-1. This was their fifth straight victory over Oratory. In 2010, Oratory’s Nick Barresi, Coach Barresi’s younger brother, scored the game-winning goal in overtime to beat Summit 2-1. 

At the end of the game, the rowdies celebrated with the team as they sprayed water and tossed powder all over the players. The fans were in full force throughout the game and it proved to help the morale of the whole team. In fact, some rowdies are claiming that they are the sole reason OP was able to defeat Summit (which makes sense, of course). Either way, the support from fellow Rams in every grade was unmatched. To be able to share such a great victory with an awesome Rowdies section was truly an amazing experience for the whole team and one which everyone hopes will happen again and again in the future.