MCC Men one win away from National Spotlight

Long before the leaves started to turn color, there was a feeling around MCC that the Mens’ soccer team was heading toward something special. But 17 wins – 13 by shutout – and just 11 goals allowed over 19 games? That was hard to imagine.

The Cougars (17-2) won the New England Championship (Region XXI) on Sunday and are one win away from a trip to Richland, Texas for the NJCAA Division III National Championship Tournament. Standing in their way is Suffolk County Community College-Selden (18-0-1), the # 1 ranked team in the nation according to the latest (October 29) NJCAA Division III Poll. Suffolk-Selden’s lone blemish this season was a 1-1 tie against Nassau County CC on October 15th. The Clippers will visit the MCC campus on Saturday to play the Cougars at 1PM for the District 3 Championship and the right to represent the East in the National Tournament.

“17 wins is better than we could possibly imagine,” ninth year MCC Coach Jim Insinga said. “We’ve had good teams in the past and have had 15-16 wins. 17 wins is special, so we’ve exceeded expectations.”

Insinga has stocked his 2008 team with a powerful offense, a strong defense and Region XXI’s top goalkeeper.

Jemmy Cange leads Division III in scoring with 28 goals and 11 assists (67 points) and has been nearly unstoppable.

“He has been marked heavily throughout the season,” Insinga said of the Haiti native who scored 16 goals for MCC’s 15-4-1 Region XXI Champions in 2006. “We’ve used him as a decoy in many games, which hampered his scoring.”

Cange had three four-goal games, including one on Saturday in the Region XXI semi-final as MCC beat Bristol CC 5-0, and a three-goal effort earlier in the year. Cange did not score in the final, a 3-0 victory over Bunker Hill, but opened up space for sophomore Joe Danso who scored all three goals.

“ We’ve asked him to play on the side of the field to open up the middle of the field, yet he’s still the nation’s top scorer. If we had unleashed him, he probably would have scored more goals,” Insinga said. Cange’s 28 goals are a single season record at MCC and the former All-State player from Norwich Free Academy in MCC’s all-time leading scorer with 110 points.

MCC checked in at the #4 slot in the October 29th NJCAA Poll, are unbeaten at home over 11 games and go into the District Championship with a 12-game winning streak.

“This team really gets along well,” Insinga said. “The sophomores control that. They’ve brought a lot of leadership to the table and were a steadying factor throughout the year.” Sophomore Captain Austin Fetzer, of Hebron, has anchorched a core of outstanding defenders and when balls did slip through, opponents had to deal with the Jeff Gregor, Region XXI’s top goalkeeper.

“Gregor is the best goalkeeper we’ve had here,” Insinga, who has won five Region XXI tittles over nine years and took his 2002 team to the NJCAA National Tournament, said. “He’s a big lanky guy. He can move like a cat, like a 5’10” guy but he’s a 6’3” or 6’4” guy. He’s got the wingspan to block the shots up high, he’s got very good goalkeeping senses, he stays in his line and comes out when he has to and 99 percent of the time he gets the ball when he comes out.”

Gregor has allowed just three goals to slip by him over 17 games and is the owner of a 0.297 goals against average. His counterpart on Saturday, Adrian Ibanez, will be every bit his equal. Ibanez made eight saves in the Region XV Championship a week ago and has allowed five goals over 20 games and thrown 14 shutouts. Suffolk-Selden’s offense starts with Farah Toure who scored 15 times with five assists.

“We play in a difficult region and are fortunate to come in with the record we have,” Suffolk-Selden Head Coach Frank Vertullo said. “I’m sure it’s going to be a very good game.”

“We’re excited about it” Insinga said of the pending duel before a blustery practice Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve been there four times, we’ve succeeded once, came close twice, so we’re pretty excited about getting back there and hopefully get past a very good team in Suffolk Selden.”