HAMILTON – Not everybody loves a Cinderella story. Especially the team that gets run over by her carriage. For the second straight year, the Steinert boys soccer team got to the precipice of a sectional championship only to lose in heart-breaking fashion. The third-seeded Spartans became the latest victim of ninth-seeded Long Branch’s Cinderella run as the Green Wave used a second-half goal for a 1-0 victory in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III final Friday. It added to the anguish that last year’s returning players felt after falling to Robbinsville on penalty kicks in the CJ III finals. “It’s really hard,” said rock-solid but tearful senior center-back Elliot Morris. “Knowing that we’ve been here twice and falling short both times, it’s really hard. We have to know the next team behind us is gonna prepare to be here and hopefully next year they can finish.” It was the 10th straight win for Long Branch (12-10) after a 2-10 start. Led by Bill Rohr – their third coach in as many years – the Green Wave has won eight straight elimination games including an upset of top-seeded Colts Neck in the quarterfinals. Goalie Carlos Rodas said there was no one added to the team or no one became eligible to start the run. It was just a case of an inexperienced team learning to play together against tough competition. “It’s been the same team all year, really,” said Rodas, who came up huge by saving a second-half penalty kick. “We just had a bad start and then we started to take everything more serious.” The match was a battle of two defensive-minded teams, as Long Branch entered with six shutouts in its last seven games and Steinert had won two straight 1-0 matches and had 11 shutouts this season. In a weird first half, a quick, aggressive Green Wave team had most of the possession advantage and yet Steinert had a 6-2 shot advantage and launched the half’s only four shots on goal. In fact, Steinert had a 13-5 advantage for the game. “The first half if they had scored I wouldn’t have been shocked,” Steinert coach Anthony Tessein said. “We played a lot better in the second half.” Shortly after halftime, Steinert (16-5-3) got a huge opportunity when Mathias Perez was taken down in the box and the Spartans received a penalty kick. Tyler Tafrow hit a solid shot, well placed shot to the lower left corner, but Rodas came up with a spectacular diving save to keep the game scoreless. “I really read the shooter,” Rodas said. “You can tell by the hips. Righty is to the left and I just go full force.” Long Branch has been dangerous in set pieces of late, and capitalized on another with 27:27 left. A corner kick into the box was headed by towering Tristan Pierre-Louis and saved by Dennis Chaykovskyy. But Brandon Mendoza got to the rebound and slid a pass to Thomas Silva, who blasted it into the back of the net. “I knew that goal was gonna give us the win,” Silva said. Steinert began to pressure and got off five shots that Rodas handled in the next 15 minutes. The junior keeper was stellar in controlling his box, short circuiting several opportunities before they became dangerous. In a game that featured 13 yellow cards, a Green Wave player got his second and Steinert had a man advantage for the final 5:20 but could not capitalize. “We knew they were gonna come out hard,” said Morris, the heart and soul of the Spartans stellar defense. “They came out really hard. In my mind I knew we were gonna win, but they had every single one of them – on the bench, on the team, with the coach, even with the fans – I guess they just wanted it more. They did what they had to do, they finished when they needed to and we couldn’t finish when we needed to.” A dejected Tessein said “It went exactly as I expected, except for the losing part.” The coach will bid farewell to a stellar group of seniors including Morris, Chaykovskyy, Jake Reilly, Sam Narkum, Tyler Tafrow, Matt Tafrow and Perez. They helped take Steinert to heights not expected this season. “I’m very proud of them,” an emotional Tessein said. “We lost a lot of guys from the previous team that got to this stage. I think a lot of people counted them out and this senior group was resilient. They didn’t let anybody tell them they couldn’t do it. We got pretty darn far behind the leadership.” Unfortunately for Steinert, it met a team that is playing free and loose with the house money and feels it can do no wrong these days. Long Branch (12-10) 0 1 – 1 Steinert (16-5-3) 0 0 – 0 G: Silva. A-Mendoza. Shots: L-5, S-13. Saves: Rodas 11. S-Chaykovskyy 2.