Celebrating our 134th anniversary in West Hudson

For the Kearny High School football team (both men's and women's), qualifying for their respective Hudson County Championship is one thing.

After all, Cardinal boys and girls are the top seeds in the county competition.

But in their craziest dream, no one would have thought where the championship game would take place.

Yes, the dream of the dream, the Cardinal team will play a championship doubles match in the local football field of Mecca, the Red Bull Arena in Harrison.

The Carney Girls will face North Bergen in the County Championship at 5pm on Thursday, followed by a showdown. The Carney Boys, the seventh-ranked team in New Jersey, will face their rivals Harrison at 7:30. afternoon

"I didn't expect this to happen," Carney men's football coach Bill Garka said. "The children must be very excited when they study."

"We are just very excited," Carney women's coach Mike Sylvia (Mike Sylvia). "Red Bull Arena is a special place. We haven't been there in a while. I heard that we had the opportunity to play there. When it was officially released, we were all very excited."

Once Kearny advances to the Men's Basketball Championship, a neutral venue is needed for the game. The first choice is a terrible choice, although it is a good venue, but... "We heard it will be Lincoln Park (in Jersey City)," Galka said. "I want to know why we are going there. I never even thought about the Red Bull Arena. This is more than just a surprise."

"It's great that the Red Bulls gave us the opportunity to play there," Sylvia said. "It means a lot to us."

Both of Kearny's teams participated in the championship game in a favorable position.

The boys click completely. They still rely on forward Juan Rojas (Juan Rojas) to lead the way, but recently, they received the likes of Alejandro Alvarado and Cristian Escandon The score to increase some scoring shocks. Just last week, Alvarado and Escandon completed a three-goal hat-trick.

"You don't want to rely on one person," Galka said. “It’s better when we have three or four people who can score. We are very excited about it. When we have a group of people, we are much better.”

Rojas still leads the Karting (15-1-1) with 15 goals and 10 assists, but Alvarado has 13 goals. Escandon is the younger brother of former New Jersey Player of the Year Jose Escandon, currently playing for the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with 8 goals and 12 assists.

But Cardinal also scored 9 goals from Aiden Mansila, Alan Antonelli and John Baez, who also contributed 11 assists.

This is an incredible total, and they have scored at least eight goals.

It doesn't stop there. Nicholas Gomez and Dalton Davila each had seven goals.

"This is of course a balanced team," Galka said. "When we play well, we don't have to go to Juan (Rojas)."

Galka is also satisfied with the defensive efforts, including goalkeeper Joshua Rodriguez and substitute Alex Cruz.

The defenders are three-year players Alan Castillo and Daniel Velazquez, as well as Michael Reis and Gerald Kochtro.

"They didn't get any glory," Galka said of his defenders. "They have been playing very well. This is important because we may only have very few opportunities to move forward. We may have to play good defense in big games. We have a good experience there."

The Kardinal Girls (8-5-2) are led by Abby Crispin, who has scored 9 goals and contributed 9 assists.

"I know she is a creative organizer, but she has done more than I expected," Silvia said of Chris, her sister Amber was a former annual observer female athlete. "She has achieved great goals in our big games. She is the senior captain you want."

Paige Raefski also scored 9 goals for Kardinals, and Emily Horvaht added 8. Gabriela Schivel and talented defender Maci Covello scored 7 goals.

"This is a collective effort," Sylvia said.

The same goes for the defensive department, goalkeeper Aracely Vazquez leads the way, but Gabby Matias saw a lot of action in the county championships.

The defensive lineups of Maci Covello (one of the best central defenders in the state), Carley Natosi, Mariana Martins and Andrea Toledo are rock solid.

"We have a super defensive line," Silvia said. "It turns out that they are where we feel comfortable."

Kardinals have defeated North Bergen 3-0.

"We respect them very much," Sylvia said. "They like to emphasize this issue. You never know what will happen. We are very happy to be there for sure. We have been dealing with tensions throughout the season, but this team showed up at an important moment."

Undoubtedly, this should be a good day for Carney Football. This is the first time Cardinas has boarded the Red Bull Arena since 2015.

"This fits the requirements," Garka said of the game at the Red Bull Arena. "It's like a gift to children. Our players will be happy to participate in the game. Once they are on the field, they will be ready. I am very happy that we were there on Thursday night to play against Harrison. Our children still can't believe them. Play there."

Carney midfielder Alejandro Alvarado has become a reliable second scorer in Cardinal's men's football. Photo by Jim Haig

Carney midfielder Abby Crispin became the top scorer of the Cardinal women's football team. Photo by Jim Haig

Kevin Canessa is the editor and broadcaster of The Observer, where he has been working since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of newspapers and websites, the production of electronic newspapers, writes several stories every week (including weekly editorials), broadcasts live on Facebook Live, including weekly news reviews-and more behind-the-scenes stories. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced to the newspaper its first blog-which included podcasts, audio and video. Kevin is from Jersey City and has lived in Carney until 2004, living in Port Saint Lucie. In Florida, for the four years until February 2016 and March of the same year, he moved back to West Hudson and returned to the Observer full-time. Click here to send an email to Kevin.