Hackettstown boys soccer pulls away from Voorhees in 2nd half of sectional semis

Senior Yasseen Zoklat is the only player on the Hackettstown boys soccer team that played a role in its last run to a sectional championship.

It's maybe fitting that Zoklat's goal with three seconds left sealed the Tigers' win at Voorhees in the NJSIAA North 2, Group 2 semifinals to help them return to the final for the first time since they won the sectional title in 2021.

"Incredible feeling," Zoklat said. "We've had a good last two years, but we've come up short a few times. Just to be able to come back, persevere through it all and get a good record and come back (to the sectional final); it just means the world."

Eighth-seeded Hackettstown defeated the fifth-seeded Vikings 4-0 Tuesday night.

The Tigers (20-5) will travel to third-seeded Harrison, which beat second-seeded Madison 2-1 in the other semifinal, in the North 2 Group 2 championship Friday at a time to be determined.

Voorhees finished the season 19-4.

Hackettstown scored with a well-worked routine on its third corner kick of the game with 7:16 left in the first half.

The Tigers held that 1-0 lead into halftime, setting up the dynamic in the second half that defined the game.

As the Vikings pushed further up the field in search of an equalizer, Hackettstown had opportunities to break on the counter, mostly by targeting its strong, fast junior forward Ibrahim Bah.

"I always condition after practice, I'm always conditioned. When they bring numbers up and they give me space to run, I know I can outpace anyone," Bah said. "I can use my speed and I know I'm relentless. That's the game plan."

"In the first half, we kinda got away from our style. We knew Voorhees was gonna be big, fast, strong, physical, very direct. They have some good players, they're very, very well-coached," Hackettstown coach Matt DeMartini said of Chase Barbieri's side. "It was kinda like weathering the storm, then, once we scored that first goal, we calmed down and realized we can get back to our style of play."

A counter attack down the left wing with 13:56 left to play culminated with Zoklat sliding a through ball in behind to Bah who, with Voorhees junior goalie Devin Tuvey charging off his line to try and smother the chance, rolled in a low shot across goal.

"Beautiful," Bah said of the assist that set up his goal. "I love playing with this guy (Zoklat). He's got the mind, he sees everything. I've never played with a player like him."

"We knew they were gonna come out really hard, they're a great team and we knew they needed a goal so they were going to be pushing up so the counter attack was on," Zoklat said. "When you have a striker like Ibrahim, anything's possible, just play him through... A midfielder's dream."

The Vikings had few chances late on, but were unlucky to have play stopped due to one of their players being down injured and not have advantage played when junior Joseph Cunha was through on goal down the left wing about two minutes after Hackettstown doubled its lead.

With the majority of the second half being the end-to-end sort of contest that favored the Tigers, they added two more goals in the final minute.

With 45 seconds left, Bah let senior Tyler Lambo's low cross from the right wing go by him to junior Aidan Murphy at the back post, where Murphy tapped in the finish before Zoklat capped the scoring.

"In the last 20 minutes, I think we saw that they were a little gassed. That's a really big part of our game, we play a full 80 minutes," DeMartini said. "When we saw that (Bah) was getting a little bit more space than he did in the first half, we were trying to play that ball directly to him. When he has the ball at his feet or he's running into space, he's very hard to handle."

With Bah being marked by both Voorhees junior Christian Ventura, who stayed close to Bah throughout, and senior Jake Vernieri, who had the deeper role in the Vikings' back line as a sweeper, Hackettstown had less success in open play in the first half.

"Honestly, when people double-mark me, it gives me confidence because it lets me know I'm one of the best players on the field or the best player on the field," Bah said. "That's just my mentality."

The Tigers took the lead on a corner to Tuvey's left that they sent in a low cross to the edge of the penalty area, where senior Liam Parr collected possession and slid a pass left to senior Michael Marrella. Marrella drove a low shot that nestled into the corner of the net to Tuvey's right.

"We practice it in practice a lot, but we never seem to get it," Marrella said of the corner routine. "A lot of the time, it goes to the (opposing) team or out. We tried it the first time, it didn't work. The second time, they (Voorhees) let it happen and we put it in."

"It's just a tone-setter. When we score first, I feel like we have the energy, we have the adrenaline to keep going," the senior added. "I just think we play better when we score first."

Hackettstown proved that throughout the second half and now has the chance to win another sectional title on Friday.

The Tigers last played Harrison (17-5-2) in the quarterfinals of the North 2 Group 2 tournament in 2022, which the Blue Tide won with a 1-0 win over Voorhees in the final.

"It feels great, it feels amazing," Bah said of reaching the final. "I've always dreamed of this since I was in sixth grade, and now it's finally gonna happen. Lets see if we can win it."

Bah will have plenty of room to run at Harrison, which has one of the widest, if not widest, field in New Jersey.

"They're gonna be very skilled, technical, just like Voorhees, so the space on their field is a big concern," DeMartini said. "We've adapted all year long to anything that's been thrown at us, so we're gonna go to Harrison and give it our best shot."