Letizia silences his critics in Passaic Tech win by Sean Farrell of The Record
WAYNE – The jokes from teammates came all the time.
At practice. In warmups. During halftime.
“How do you start and not score?”
Ryan Letizia heard it everywhere.
He paid the price for going about two years since his last goal.
But the Passaic Tech junior finally got his redemption.
A hard shot clanked off the post and the ball rolled right to him for a rebound he would not miss.
Teammates surrounded him right after his goal in a 6-0 Bulldog win over Eastside on Thursday in the Passaic County tournament.
His loudest critics became his biggest fans.
“It felt like the world was lifted off my shoulders,” Letizia said. “Now they can’t say anything anymore. It just feels better now.”
Passaic Tech (6-3-1) could be a darkhorse as the tournament’s No. 6 seed.
The Bulldogs have won three straight and scored 15 goals during that stretch.
A talented team has been held back this season by a slew of injuries and a lineup that changes from week to week. Two starters missed Thursday’s game, including key scorer Axel Velazquez.
But the Bulldogs are starting to show signs of reaching their potential.
“I hope so,” coach Marc Foti said. “I wish we could have the full complement of players on the field at one point. Every game but the first three, I’ve had at least one starter hurt. It would be nice to have the 11 starters on the field. But we haven’t been lucky.”
The Bulldogs came out strong from the opening whistle.
They dominated possession with clever passing and waves of speed.
The blowout could have been much worse if not for the fine play of Eastside goalie Haxel Climes.
“We’re just distributing the goals around,” Foti said. “They’re not coming from one spot which is nice. You can’t key on one particular player. Five or six guys can put the ball in the back of the net.”
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Passaic Tech’s offense got even better recently with the return of Oscar Perez.
The Bulldogs’ top forward, who had a team-high 15 goals last year, missed about two weeks with a foot injury.
He broke a scoreless tie with Eastside on a run down the right side, then added another goal early in the second half.
“He scores goals from all over the place,” Foti said. “He scores with his feet, with his head, with whatever is available. When your little guys can score, the big guys can roam around. He’s one of the smallest guys on the team and one of the quickest.”
“There’s been more intensity in practice, more focus,” Perez said, of a recent hot streak.
The Bulldogs take on third-seeded Lakeland in the quarterfinals and go for their first county title since 2008.
And a rejuvenated Letizia could make a deep team even better.
“Now he can go play without that monkey on his back,” Foti said. “Hopefully he can play relaxed and score when we need him to.”