Men's Soccer Recap of National Tournament

The Sussex Men's Soccer team entered into its first ever NJCAA National Tournament experience in school History. They started their tournament off against Richland CC, who is now the NJCAA DIII National Champion. The game was favored by the Ducks, who put a lot of pressure on Sussex early on. Sussex would inevitably fall to the Ducks by a score of 4-0. Richland would later beat the number 3 seed of the tournament by a score of 7-3 in the Semi Finals, and later win the tournament against number 1  seed Nassau 6-1. The Sussex men's soccer team held their own against Richland. Coach Vernacchio had this to say about the game, "What an opportunity this has been for our team and our program. Any time you get to play against a team who has won the National tournament 7 times it is great for your program's growth. Coach Sean does a tremendous job down in Richland and I can tell you I have learned a lot from our game against them. Even though we started off the game a little on the back foot I was proud of how the boys responded in the second half." 

On the second day, Sussex faced off against Bunker Hill from Boston. It was a very back and forth game and the Skylanders got to experience playing in a snow storm. Bunker Hill, in the end, would go on and win the game with a score of 5-3, but the players and coaching staff at Sussex were not disappointed with the result. Coach Vernacchio said, " The conditions were obviously not pleasant but our team kept fighting. I am proud of how we ended the tournament and our season. I believe it was an overall great experience for our team to learn and grow from. Hearing how the staff from Herkimer and the coaches from other teams would talk about our program was very humbling. We deserved to be there and were so grateful for the opportunity to represent our team, school, and most importantly our community. The level of what is expected has now been raised, and I know the freshmen are excited about that."

Sussex finished the season as NJCAA Region XIX Champions with a record of 11-5-1.