Sussex Men's Soccer Team Ties Rival CCM

The Sussex Men's Soccer team opened the 2019 season with a tie against rivals County College of Morris in an unbelievable game that had Coach Vernacchio excited about his team's resilency. Morris opened the game up by scoring two goals in the first half which put Sussex in a hole early on in this game. Coach Vernacchio said, "during half time it is always interesting to see what the boys are thinking and what type of mindset they are in. I always let them talk with each other for a bit before I start the half time talk. It was great to see the boys understanding that what they just did was not good enough and there is another level that we need to be at in order to achieve our goals this year."

As the second half started, the Skylanders came out controlling the game but would be hit with some more adversity. In a span of 10 minutes, Sussex would lose a player (due to a red card) and give up two penatly kicks that CCM would convert to bring the score to 4-0. Coach Vernacchio said "at that moment I was about to find out what kind of team we have." It did not take long for Sussex to respond. Deon Waldmeier would get Sussex on the board by converting a cross from Sebastain Stephan. With 30 minutes left and the score 4-1, Adrian Sanchez of Sussex shined. Sanchez would score the Skylanders next three goals with one of them being in the final minute of play.

Overtime had both teams missing a few opportunities with the better of those coming from our Skylanders. As the game ended, Coach Vernacchio said, "We fought hard and got back to how we should have played from the beginning of the game. Of course we would have loved to have scored in overtime, but I believe our team gained more from what they accomplished rather than just the result. We found our identity as a team this year. So many teams we have played and will play don't truly know who they are as a team or even as a program. With the revolving door that is Junior College, our program's identity has always been the same but our teams identity from year to year will change a bit because of the new players we will get in. This is an exceptional group of young men and after this result, and the way that we got it, you can't help but be excited for the rest of this season."

Sussex will travel to Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY, Thursday, September 5th for a 3:30 kick off.