It was an hour before a 1973 NJSIAA Group IV tournament game at the Peddie School, and Steinert’s soccer players were disembarking from the bus while their Edison counterparts watched with amusement.
Terry Smith remembered it with a wry grin.
“Edison didn’t have a football program, so for fall sports all their guys played soccer and these guys were pretty big,” Smith recalled. “When we got off the bus they were all laughing at us. We had some size, but we weren’t like these guys. They were undefeated in North Jersey and they thought they were gonna crush us.”
There was a crushing all right.
Steinert 9, Edison 0.
“We ran those guys right off the field, we just ran them into the ground,” Smith said. “I’ll never forget, the fullback that was covering me said ‘They should just give you guys the trophy right now and let the other teams play it out for second.”
That guy showed excellent foresight, as Steinert then defeated Brick, 1-0, in the state semifinals and Paterson-Eastside, 3-0, in the finals on an Art Napolitano hat trick in monsoon-like conditions at Mercer County Park.
That capped a 20-0-1 season and secured a No. 1 state ranking for the ‘73 Spartans, who will be celebrated on April 2 with induction to the Mercer County Soccer Hall of Fame. They will highlight a strong Hamilton Township contingent, which includes Hamilton West graduate Rob Tartaglia and Steinert grads Dick Bartlett and Sam Maira.
Steinert was one of three Mercer County teams to raise championship trophies that rainy November Saturday, along with Non-Public A champ St. Anthony’s (now Trenton Catholic) and Group II champ Lawrence. All three will be inducted to the HOF, and tickets can be purchased by emailing bruce@mercercountysoccerhof.com
Amazingly, that Steinert team sometimes gets lost in the shadow of the 1977 powerhouse that went 24-0. But the ’73 squad is arguably the second best team in school history and a top-five all-time team in Mercer County as every starter played in college (except Ed Kerner, who could have played soccer but opted for baseball).
“I think we were in the top two or three teams of all time in the county,” said fullback Jim “Himer” Fink, whose brother Tom was the 1977 team’s leading goal scorer. “We were one of the better teams that Steinert had. They try to compare us to Tom’s team, and other than Tom’s team I think we were one of the better ones.”
The 1973 season was almost like a changing of the guard for the program. Smith and midfielder Dave Timko each had brothers (Bobby and John) who previously won state titles at Steinert. Their family’s time was up, while Fink was the first of seven brothers who would win a combined four state crowns over the next 11 years.
“That was pretty cool how that worked out,” Smith said. “We used to hang at Himer’s house all the time. It was unbelievable the amount of athletes that went through that house during that period. At the time I didn’t realize how lucky we were. We all had each other, we hung out with each other, we looked out for each other.”
That bonding helped make the team great. Kerner, Smith and Jim McNellis were the lone starters to come from Nottingham Junior High, while the others went to Reynolds. But they knew each other from youth leagues and playing together on all-star teams, and combined to form an unbeatable force.
Smith, and ‘73 captains Napolitano and Jim McKeown were sophomores on the 1971 varsity, which won its third straight championship. They were joined by a slew of junior classmates in 1972, resulting in the only season the Spartans did not win a state title in Mario “Goose” Laurenti’s five years as coach.
“We kind of felt we let Goose down that year,” Fink said. “We only had 11 wins and we lost to Trenton High twice to his son, which was awful for him. We only had a few seniors on that team so maybe we lacked maturity.”
In their “off” year, the Spartans went 11-5-1 and qualified for the state tournament. After that season of creating cohesion, Steinert came back with one goal in mind.
“We expected to go all the way,” Smith said. “There was nobody around who we thought would be able to touch us.”
Steinert had a strong forward line with Smith at left wing, Nick Stephan and junior McNellis sharing time on the right, and Napolitano and sophomore sensation Kenan McCoy playing in the middle.
Napolitano was an All-American and the New Jersey Player of the Year, finishing his career with a school-record 52 goals. McCoy made an immediate impact, finishing second on the team in goals.
“Art was always in the right place,” Fink said. “He would get open and, more than anybody else, he was best in the air with headballs. He could leap pretty high and he always timed it pretty well. He probably was the best person scoring headball goals that I’ve been around.”
Steinert’s biggest strength was through the midfield and in the back. McKeown and Dave Timko ran the show in the middle.
“In my opinion McKeown was the best player I ever played with,” Smith said. “Everything came from him, maybe out to me, and then into Artie. We just had a good set up going.”
Bob Matthews was the goalie, playing behind a rugged defensive unit that included Fink, Kerner, Henry Picatagi and junior George Caruso, who quickly developed a reputation in Mercer as a lockdown defender.
“George Caruso was a beast,” Fink said. “He played like such a wild man. He was good.”
Rounding out the team were Mark Cubberly, Tom Elliot, John McDowell, Ed Fuchs, Frank Hess, Jim Leigh, Rich Zimmerman, Jim Migliaccio, Ken Muha and Greg Robb, who remains tight with Fink to this day as part of Himer’s legendary St. Patrick’s Day bus trip to Manhattan.
“The guys that didn’t start could have started for any other high school,” Smith said. “Goose was good at bringing guys in and out when he had to.”
While the common thought was that anybody could win with Steinert’s talent, Laurenti seemed to be the perfect coach for that group.
“He knew the game and he would put us in the right spots,” Fink said. “But he would never over-coach us. He’d let us get out there and play. He knew that we knew how to defend, we knew how to pass and we knew how to score. It was second nature being out there.”
There were times when Laurenti tried to strategize, but that never quite worked out. During game breaks, Goose would gather his players around a pile of stones, and each one represented a Spartan and an opponent.
“He’d put the rocks down and say ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do,’” Fink said. “We’re all trying to figure out what rock we are, and who was the other team. We’re like ‘Am I that pebble there or the bigger rock?’ It was like ‘What are we doing here?’ And then finally he’d get frustrated and yell ‘Just go out and score more freaking goals than them!’”
Which they did, outscoring opponents 85-13 and recording 12 shutouts. The only blemish came in a scoreless tie to St. Anthony’s, which featured two of Mercer’s all-time greats in Billy Gazonas and Denny Kinnevy.
After that game the Spartans won 12 straight, and outscored five state tournament opponents, 22-4. The Spartans allowed four goals in their first two wins before shutting out Edison, Brick and Paterson Eastside. McKeown scored the lone goal from 30 yards out against Brick, and Napolitano was a machine in the state final. He completed his hat trick on a cross from McNellis.
“The ball stopped dead in a puddle right in front of the goal,” Fink said. “Art just went up and hit it out of the puddle and slammed it into the goal. It was really miserable that day.”
Smith figured “If it was a dry day we probably would have beaten them by a lot more.”
Steinert began the season ranked No. 1 in the state, and never relinquished that status. It marked the last title for Laurenti, who stepped down after the season and was replaced by Paul Tessein, who would go on to a legendary career. Tessein helped form the ‘73 team as Reynolds coach, and JV coach Ted Kinter is in the Mercer Hall of Fame for his work with future Spartan championship players.
Aside from coaching and talent, the team’s biggest attribute was its chemistry.
“We were so close,” Fink said. “The majority of us were all the same age. And Kenan, McNellis and Caruso just fit right in seamlessly. We honestly never had a bad game that year.”
Lots of good games and good times.
“The friendships are always tighter when you’re winning; and you had to win so you could have that weekend party, get that bonfire,” Smith said with a laugh. “It was nice to get the wins and the All-County teams and the championship and all that. But the friendships on that team and the memories with those guys are what’s most important to me.”
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Rob Tartaglia played three years for Hamilton West, earning All-County and All-State honors his junior and senior seasons. A 1981 grad, “Tags” scored 43 goals en route to All-America status at Mercer County Community College. He scored one of the biggest goals in MCCC history with the game-winner against Lewis and Clark in the 1982 NJCAA national championship game. Tartaglia also played at Fairleigh Dickinson, and went on to a career coaching youth soccer.
Dick Bartlett is a 1965 Steinert graduate who starred in soccer and track & field. Dick was All-City as a senior and started for three years at Annapolis, where he played on two Navy teams that reached the NCAA Tournament.
Sam Maira, who is now the family’s second most famous member behind his sister, 101.5 traffic reporter Jill Maira, transferred to Steinert as a sophomore. He made All-County while sharing time in goal for two seasons with Kevin Haney. Sam’s goalkeeping helped the Spartans to a 1975 co-state championship with Kearny and, after graduating in 1976, he went on to start for Rutgers while having a unique part-time job as a roadie for the bar band Skat. After coaching McCorristin (now Trenton Catholic) for a year, Maira embarked on a standout career in South Jersey with both boys and girls teams. He coached at Riverside, Shawnee and Seneca and is in the South Jersey Hall of Fame.
The Steinert High School 1973 soccer team included (front row) Jim McKeown, Greg Robb, Dave Timko, Kenan McCoy, Jim McNellis, Nick Stephen; (middle row) Jim Leigh, Ken Muha, Art Napolitano, Jim Migliaccio, Ed Fuchs, John McDowell, Terry Smith, Bob Mathews; and (back row) manager Bob Campbell,Rich Zimmerman, Henry Picatagi, Ed Kerner, Frank Hess, Jim Fink, Tom Elliot, Mark Cubberly, manager Mike Wyble and Coach Mario (Goose) Laurenti.,
