Caminneci’s golden goal shocks No.1 Ramapo

Double overtime win for Valley in North 1, Group 3 semifinals

Noah Silver and Ethan Perlman|November 9, 2021

Valley’s bench as well as their starters come together and start celebrating after a hard fought game that ended in such dramatic fashion. Caminneci’s winning goal lifted Valley past Ramapo 2-1 in the North 1, Group 3 semifinals.

One shot by Michael Caminneci changed Valley’s season and reputation forever. A shot that was a thing of magic flew from the ground into the upper left hand corner. The crowd went wild as Caminneci charged the bench, arms wide in the air with pure joy and emotion on his face.

No.12 Valley had done the improbable, defeating the undefeated and top-seeded Ramapo in double overtime by a score of 2-1 to advance to the North 1, Group 3 sectional final

Valley will face No. 2 Roxbury on Thursday in the finals at Roxbury High School at 3 p.m.

Ramapo came in as heavy favorites. The Raiders are ranked No.6 in the state by nj.com and haven’t lost in the past year.

Ramapo’s last loss dates back to Oct. 1, 2020 as they were defeated by Northern Highlands 3-1.

Coming into this game known as the Cinderella team Valley was ready to make noise in any way they could. 

“We were super confident [going in]. Every other team that has played them has come short and we just felt that we could be the difference [maker].” Caminneci said. “I respect [Ramapo], they are a great team but this feels great.” 

Despite an article being written by Nj.com about Valley’s past upsets, coach Luciano Cofrancesco never thought they should have been ranked so low in the first place. 

“I know they are calling us “Cinderella” in the paper, but I think these boys have always been a good group and we want to continue to move that 12 seed,” Cofrancesco said. “Huge [win] tonight, but we have one more to go.”

Caminneci lines up to take the most important shot of his life.

A Valley soccer overtime tradition occured as assistant coach Al Coleman went up to one person before overtime began and told everyone the player that he thought would score the goal. 

“We have a tradition whenever we go into overtime that we always choose who we think is going to score the winning goal and [this time] Coach Coleman chose Caminneci,” Cofrancesco said. “When he hit it, we knew it was a sweet one and when you storm the field it is an unbelievable feeling.”

Coleman’s pick for the overtime winner today was senior Michael Caminneci. More often than not it seems that Coleman wins the lottery by choosing the game changing/winning player. 

“I watched him all game and I saw him lurking as he didn’t have as much to say in the game as he hoped,” assistant coach Al Coleman said. “I know he’s a special player and you just saw he had that belief in himself that he could score in the time that mattered the most.”

Nick Bananos also put his name on the scorecard as he scored the first goal of the game in the 27th minute.

This was then followed by a goal in the 20th minute coming from Alim Lita , the striker of Ramapo, after a massive deflection which sent keeper Luke Stephan diving the opposite direction.

Valley will face No. 2 Roxbury on Thursday in the North 1, Group 3 sectional finals away at Roxbury High School.