Shealer’s Notebook: Milestone reached, streaks ended
It’s hard for me to decide what is most amazing — the fact Pingry School (N.J.) coach Miller Bugliari has 900 high school coaching victories OR the fact he has been a coach for 62 seasons. Both are simply staggering…
Access all of Prep Soccer
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingIt’s hard for me to decide what is most amazing — the fact Pingry School (N.J.) coach Miller Bugliari has 900 high school coaching victories OR the fact he has been a coach for 62 seasons.
Both are simply staggering accomplishments.
On Saturday, Pingry’s Daniel Ittycheria scored early in the second half and the team made it stand in a 1-0 victory over George School (Pa.). The result ran FAB 50 No. 3 Pingry’s record to 11-0 this season and gave the 86-year-old Bugliari his 900th coach win against 128 losses and 76 ties.
Bugliari trails only Terry Michler of Christian Brothers (Mo.) in coaching wins as Michler has topped 1,000.
Interestingly, Bugliari’s 900th win came almost six years to the day when his Pingry squad squared off with Michler’s Christian Brothers team in 2015, a match won by Christian Brothers.
Here is a more complete article on Bugliari’s 900th win, which was featured on NJ.com.
SCORING IN BUNDLES: There will be more on this story later in the week, but what happens when a Division I prospect and scoring phenom is playing against a very weak opponent and the coach lets him run wild?
The answer is a new national record for goals scored in a match.
Kevin Hubbell, who has NCAA Division I offers, netted 16 goals — in 31 minutes of play — on Sept. 29 as Benzie Central (Mich.) humbled Kingsley (Mich.) 17-0.
Hubbell’s performance broke the mark held by Dale Self of Sumter (S.C.), who scored 14 goals in a game in the spring of 2002. Hubbell clearly was on a mission on Sept. 29 as he had scored a mind-blowing eight goals by the 10-minute mark. The coach allowed him to continue as the state record was 10. Once that tally was passed, the coach informed Hubbell the national mark was 14. He scored his 15th goal by the 30th minute. He was removed from the match, but returned six minutes later and scored one last goal — 16 goals in 31 minutes of play. The game ended at halftime due to Michigan’s mercy rule.
Interestingly, Benzie Central has one won since — dropping three straight games and scoring a total of one goal. A glance at Benzie Central’s results resembles baseball-like final scores. The team has won matches 6-2, 9-1, 12-0 and has been on the losing end of 8-6, 7-3, 8-5, 8-1, and 8-0 contests.
END OF THE RUN: Undefeated streaks have one thing in common — they all end at some point.
Previous FAB 50 No. 2 Portland Jesuit (Ore.) and No. 3 Eastern (N.J.) saw lengthy win/undefeated streaks end last week.
Beaverton (Ore.) upended Jesuit 3-1 in a clash between the state’s top two-ranked teams on Oct. 4. Both entered the contest with perfect records, but when it was over Jesuit was 7-1 and lost for the first time since 2016 — an undefeated run of 78 matches.
Eastern, meanwhile, was riding a 26-match win streak before it was stunned by Cherokee (N.J.) 2-1 on Oct. 6. The fact Eastern took a loss was less surprising than Jesuit given the quality talent that had graduated from last year’s Eastern squad. Also, Eastern had been lucky in the early part of the 2021 season, winning six one-goal matches while building an 11-0 start.
The good news for both programs, they are both back on a one-game win streak as they posted comfortable victories to close out last week’s play.
FIRST FALL CHAMPION: Fargo Davies completed an undefeated season with a penalty kick shootout win over Shanley in the North Dakota state final, the first state championship of the 2021 fall season. Davies finished 16-0-2 thanks to some late heroics by Sam Saye and Esteban Nunez. The state final was scoreless through regulation and two overtime sessions. The penalty kicks reached the 10th round when Nunez saved a Shanley attempt and Saye finished the deal with a game-winning conversion. The result marked Davies’ first soccer state title after finishing as state runner-up in 2017, 2018, and 2019.