Freehold Soccer League has two State Cup champions
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
After waiting 25 years for another State Cup champion, the Freehold Soccer League doubled its pleasure.

This fall, two traveling teams from the club, the Lady Strikers (U-14 girls) and the Phantoms (U-11 boys), captured State Cup titles. The Strikers will play in the Region I (which includes states from Maine to Virginia) championships in July in West Virginia. For the Phantoms, who played in the State Cup for the first time, the competition stops at this level for this age group.

It was the first State Cup victory for a FSL team since the 1983 U-19 boys. Ken Finn was a member of that team, called the Falcons, and has a son, Kyle Finn, who just happens to play on the Phantoms.

"It brings back a lot of memories," said Finn, who is an FSL coach. "It was nice to see him [Kyle] playing for Freehold.

"It was a long time since Freehold last won," he added. "It was great to see it."

Finn's Falcons were one of the FSL's first traveling teams. They started play at age 10, finallywinning the State Cup in U-19. He's impressed at the quality of play of the Phantoms.

"They're more advanced at 11 than we ever were," he said. "With their training programs, they keep getting better and better."

Finn also won a state championship in high school at Freehold Township. He explained the significance of the State Cup to the state title by pointing out that in high school, you win Group titles, whereas in State Cup play, there is only one champion.

It was a small world in the State Cup finals. Ken Finn's brother, Kevin Finn, who played with him on the high school state championship, was there, watching his son, Patrick Finn, play for Basking Ridge in the Boys U-14 final. Ridge lost.

Maureen Fasano, one of the Phantoms' assistant coaches, was one of the league's trailblazers. She was there when the league first offered soccer for girls in the early 1970s, and now, her son, Mark Fasano, has won a State Cup title. Like Finn, she knows the exclusivity of the Phantoms' title.

"Only one can be state champion, and they achieved it," she said.

The State Cup was also quite a whirlwind for the Schlageter family of Jackson. They had a daughter, Samantha, and a son, Nicholas, playing on the teams. Fortunately, Lynn Schlageter pointed out, the playoff schedule had their children playing on different days, so she and husband Glenn didn't have any conflicts.

"We wanted to see both of them play," she said.

And they had the opportunity to do so, even on the day of the State Cup finals at Mercer County Park. The boys played at 10 a.m. and the Lady Strikers later at 3 p.m.

Brother and sister were pulling for each other, Lynn noted, attending as many of each other's games as they could.

"Overall, we're very proud of what they did," she said. "They have a great relationship."

Samantha is a defender and Nicholas a midfielder. When they're playing in the backyard, Lynn noted that Nicholas is always trying to get the ball away from his sister. Not playing the same position is very helpful to them when they play at home.

"Both boys and girls had some very good competition," said Schlageter. "They handled it one game at a time.

"The girls were very determined to win, and the boys, who had newcomers, meshed," she added.

There is even a State Cup connection with the Phantoms head coach, Tom Poznanski. A former high school star at Howell High School who went on to play collegiate ball at Monmouth University, Poznanski played on three State Cup championship teams with the Hazlet Rovers.

"I knew from the start we had a good core of kids, a really solid team," he said. "They all know how to play the game. I was interested to see how far we [could] go with them."

It turned out to be all the way to a state title.

The Phantoms defeated Medford, 2-0, in their State Cup final.

"They have a will to win," Poznanski said of the Phantoms. "They outworked them [Medford]."

Outworking the opposition is the same reason that Kevin McDermott, head coach of the Strikers, gave for his squad's championship.

"It was all the work the kids put into training leading up to the State Cup," he said. "Their success was related to their work ethic.

The Lady Strikers defeated the Mount Laurel Crush, 3-1, in their Cup final.

The Strikers will be taking that work ethic and hustle on the road to West Virginia next summer, when they look to win a Region title and qualify for the nationals in Maine, July 21-27.

"We will start to prepare in January [for Region play]," said McDermott. "This team is very special. They have a bright future ahead of them."

The Strikers have been a team since they were 8 years old. They've had a great State Cup record the last four years. Starting at age 11, they were contenders each year, reaching the semifinals as 11's and 13's and the quarterfinals at 12.

The Phantoms have been together for four years and have won three division titles both in the Jersey Coast Youth Soccer and Monmouth-Ocean Soccer Association.

"This puts Freehold soccer on the map as one of the top clubs in the state," said Davis. "We were the only town to have two teams in the final."

The Strikers are: Marisa DeMonte, Gabrielle Davis, Catherine Chukuka, Kelly Corrado, Chelsi Bender, Tiffany Cioffi, Meghan Brennan, Megan Hilla, Meg Kowalski, Mackenzie Cowley, Colleen Knier, Jennifer Dennis, Samantha Schlageter, Sara Cobb, Jordyn Styczynski, Brittany Hamilton, Erin Ruddy and Cassey Coyle. Matt Rigger, Sam Areman, Craig Kowalski and Hank Davis are the assistant coaches.

The Phantoms are: Christopher Anello, Ryan Cadotte, Michael Christina, Dylan Clancy, William Davis, Mark Fasano, Kyle Finn, Joseph Gordon, Christopher Hoskins, Jason Kenny, Dylan Koehler, Michael Maltese, Timothy O'Donnell, Nicholas Pellegrino, Nicholas Schlageter and Braden Yorke. Tom Poznanski and Maureen Fasano are the coaches.