1975 BOYS' SOCCER TEAM YEAR OF INDUCTION: 2010 Steinert went 18-1-2, won the mythical Mercer County championship and Central Jersey Group IV title, and was NJSIAA Group IV co-champions with Kearny. The state coaches voted Steinert New Jersey’s top soccer team. It was a compatible blend of talented underclassmen up front; a senior-dominated midfield and defense that maintained order; and two diverse goalies sharing time. The '75 group is sometimes lost in the shuffle of great Steinert teams, as it was sandwiched between arguably the two greatest soccer teams in school history – the '73 and '77 squads that were laden with All-State and All-America players. Sophomores Jim and John Bowen and juniors Rick Wiener and Gary McIlroy were starting forwards, junior Ruben Rivera and senior Dan Povia manned the midfield and seniors Picatagi, Welsh, Fink (an all-state stopper) and Andres (sweeper) were the defenders. Maira, a steady senior, and Kevin Haney, an aggressive junior, split time in goal. Coming off the bench were John McDowell, Kenan McCoy, Tom Moffat, Dominick Castaldo, Tom Fink, John Leigh, Dan Downs, Jack Blair, Bobby McVicker, Mike McVicker, Steve Tondreau and George Jolly. Fink and McDowell were co-captains, and second-year coach Paul Tessein put the whole thing together for his first of four titles. Steinert’s lone regular-season blemishes were a 1-0 loss to Hamilton (later reversed) and a tie with Lawrenceville. Steinert rolled past Colonia and Neptune in the first two rounds of the Central Jersey Group IV tournament. In the rubber match with Hamilton for the CJ IV title, in front of a crowd of over 3,000 at Mercer County Community College, McIlroy scored two goals to rally Steinert from a 2-1 deficit to a 3-2 win. Jim Bowen scored in a 1-0 semifinal win over Shawnee and Joe Fink tallied in a 1-1 tie with Kearny in the title game. Every starter on the team and most of the reserves went on to play college soccer and several have coached at the high school or club level. Click Here to enlarge the team photo. RETURN TO THE HALL OF FAME MEMBERS PAGE