Morris Knolls, Klingener Still ‘On a Roll’ in the MCT 2nd Round

SUCCASUNNA, NJ – The “roll” is still rolling for the Morris Knolls boys soccer team.

The Golden Eagles are 5-0-1 in their last six games after beating Roxbury, 3-2, in overtime on Wednesday, Oct. 9, in a Morris County Tournament second-round game played at Roxbury High School.

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Senior Matt Klingener is also on quite a roll as he had a foot in all three goals for Knolls, scoring two goals – including the game winner in OT – and adding an assist on the third. Klingener, one of the team’s captains, has scored eight goals and added five assists at during the Golden Eagles 5-0-1 streak, having scored at least one goal or an assist in each of the six games.

Morris Knolls, the No. 9 seed in the county tournament, will now face top-seeded Delbarton in a quarterfinal game scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 12, at Delbarton at a time to be determined. Delbarton beat No. 16 Morris Hills, 5-2, at Delbarton on Wednesday.

In other quarterfinal games set for Saturday, No. 7 Dover visits No. 2 Madison; No. 6 Chatham is at No. 3 Randolph; and No. 4 Morristown travels to No. 4 Morristown. The semifinals will be played Saturday, Oct. 19, at the field of the better seed and the championship game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 26, at Roxbury High School.

It was Morris Knolls coach Mike Mugavero who proclaimed his Eagles were “… on quite the roll” after beating Butler, 2-0, in a first-round game. And he came up with another catch phrase for the victory over Roxbury when he referred to excitement caused by the game-winning overtime goal as a product of “The Senior Captain Connection.”

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Not only did senior captain Klingener score the game-winner, he was assisted by fellow senior captain Arata Nakano.

“We scored two early goals to take the lead,” Mugavero said after the game. “But Roxbury clawed back with their two goals and we went into the halftime break tied at 2-2.”

Neither team scored in the second half and the game went into overtime where “The Senior Captain Connection” stepped up and created the winning goal.

Sophomore Jefferson Zapata and Klingener scored the Eagles’ first-half goals with senior Keith Fitzsimmons assisting on Klingener’s goal and Klingener assisting on Zapata’s goal.

Junior goalie Angelo D’Asti finished the game with nine saves while Knolls put 16 shots on the Roxbury nets.

Knolls improved to 8-4-2 on the season; Roxbury slipped to 6-4-1 overall.

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