The date was October 21, 2014. The site was High School South’s turf field and the event was the “Fish Bowl,” which pits High School South and Robbinsville boys’ soccer teams against each other. Coaching the Pirates was Bryan Fisher, and coaching the Ravens was his younger brother, Jeff.
It’s always an anticipated match-up and both teams feed off it, knowing all about the brothers’ friendly rivalry. It can get pretty electric, especially when a game is on the line.
With this particular match in overtime, the Ravens were awarded a penalty kick and leading scorer Brian Wojton stepped to the line. As he approached the ball, a second before making contact, Pirate keeper Luke Balestrieri began a dive to his left. Wojton connected and the ball rifled along the ground in the same direction as Balestrieri was headed. The keeper managed to tip it wide and preserve what would end as a 1-1 tie.
“I think his defining moment, and my brother would say it too, is when he saved that penalty kick,” Bryan Fisher said. “From that point forward, he’s been a real leader in our school. He plays lacrosse, he’s a PEER leader and he’s come into his own as a goalie for us this year.”
Balestrieri, now a senior, said pretty much the same thing, except with more brevity.
“I’ve always been confident,” he said. “But that definitely helped.”
Luke, the younger brother of former Pirate pitching standout Paul Balestrieri, actually likes penalty kicks. He really liked that one.
“I’m not sure why,” he said with a laugh, “but I enjoy the pressure. It was kind of exciting when that moment came — it sounds kind of weird — but it was really exciting. At that moment I didn’t realize I saved it. I reached toward it and stuck my hand out and it hit my hand and went wide.”
As is usually the case when a keeper saves a PK, it’s part quick reflexes and part good luck in making the right guess.
“I kind of saw the way he was approaching the ball and I decided from there I was going to dive to the left,” Balestrieri said. “I didn’t wait until he kicked it to react, I saw the way he approached it and got a jump, and that helps.”
While it was a big moment for Balestrieri, it was hardly his only highlight. He is in his second season as South’s starting goalkeeper, and he got the job despite not having any club or travel experience. That’s not totally uncommon, but it’s definitely not the rule these days.
Balestrieri only played in the West Windsor rec league, starting when he was in third grade with no real desire to become a star.
“When I played rec, I just really enjoyed it,” he said. “All the kids on the team were great. It was a great atmosphere, and I just wanted to play.”
He volunteered to play goalie “because it looked like it was fun, and ever since then I fell in love with it and went from there.”
Despite not playing travel or club, Luke approached some of his brother’s friends who played in the South program, and they encouraged him to go out for the team.
“They told me it was a great thing, so I figured I’d give it a shot,” he said. “I was confident.”
Balestrieri played on the freshman and JV teams his first two years. Toward the end of his JV season he was invited to practice with the varsity, “and that gave me a little insight into what I was getting into,” he says.
Balestrieri became the varsity starter last year. He had 130 saves and three shutouts during a tough season for the Pirates. He had 80 saves and three shutouts in a 10-4-1 start this year as the Pirates prepared to enter the Mercer County Tournament.
“He’s tall (6’2”), athletic, he goes up and wins the ball on corner kicks,” Fisher said. “He comes up with the big save, that’s been his knack this year. He’s just come up with really timely saves for us. Luke was amazing in goal when we beat Notre Dame and even (Irish coach Mike) Perone said ‘That’s why you beat us.’ We did score two goals, but he was probably right. Luke had 13 or 14 saves.”
Balestrieri has also done a good job of controlling his box, as he grabs balls that come across in the air, forcing the opposition to change tactics. He and veteran back Matt Stein have taken the lead role in setting up the defense.
Much of Luke’s improvement has come during high school, and a lot of it has had to do with the tutelage he got from former JV coach Chris Morales, who is now the head coach at Hamilton West. He has received added coaching from two former Pirate keepers—Chris Herte (’07) and Graham Harter (’11).
“I’ve got to give credit to Chris, he did a nice job,” Fisher said. “Luke didn’t have a ton of goalie training until he came to high school. He spent two years with Morales and got himself to figuring out what being a goalie was like. We’ve had alumni come back and it’s been great. It’s kept the South tradition alive with guys staying involved in the program and helping Luke become a better goalie.”
Fisher admitted to being pleasantly surprised as to how well Balestrieri played during his first season as a starter.
“He really came into his own and earned himself a spot as one of the top five or six goalies in the county,” the coach said.
Part of it was a growth spurt that put him over six feet.
“He looks like a man now,” Fisher said. “When Hamilton came here to play us Morales said ‘He never looked like that when he played for me.’”
Balestrieri also feels an aggressive approach has helped.
“I would say coming out to the ball and attacking it,” he said when asked his biggest improvement. “I’m not just sitting back and waiting for the ball.”
Which is something everyone got to see when he came of age by stopping a Brian Wojton penalty kick.
