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9/8/09
Mercer will honor the members of that squad when they hold a reunion on campus during the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Championships to be held November 18-22, 2009 at the MCCC Soccer Complex, where the synthetic turf surface is a far cry from what the 1963 squad was accustomed to playing on. "We didn't have the best talent, we didn't have the best equipment, we didn't have the best fields," Massielo remembers, "but I think it [our success] was more through grit and grind and being tough." The
1963 squad will be inducted into the MCCC Athletic Hall of Fame at halftime
of the 5 p.m. opening-round game of the NJCAA championships Thursday,
November 19. From there, that squad, which was led by head coach Stan
Dlugosz, will go to a reunion dinner at the Conference Center at Mercer
and share stories that remain vivid 46 years later. "To hear the guys on the phone about this taking place, they are so happy," says Ron Hoch, who played sweeper back. "It still means something to them 46 years later." Fittingly, the 1963 squad won the NJCAA Invitational Soccer Championship on a snowy, muddy field during the November 9 final at Erie County Technical Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. To become national champion, Trenton Junior College had to bring down the defending champion, undefeated Mitchell College of New London, Conn., which it did 4-3 in sudden death overtime. Throw-ins weren't a part of college soccer then, and five minutes into sudden death, the Vikings had a kick-in near midfield. Most players crammed inside New London's 18-yard line, believing Steve Doczy would kick it there. But Jim Dill had another idea and came toward Doczy, who passed the ball to him along the sideline. After one-touching the ball, Dill drilled a 40-yard shot that flew into the right corner of the net, giving the Vikings the national championship at the 5:07 mark. "I don't know, maybe it was divine intervention. Something just told me to go out there toward Doczy," he says. The win completed a 13-2 season - the Vikings' first as a varsity program after it originated as a club team in 1962. They outscored opponents by a combined 68-20. "That was quite an honor," Dlugosz says. "I had won nationals in college myself (at Drexel Tech) and I played for a national (championship) professional team and an amateur team, but to win again in my coaching career was quite an honor, too. It was the first national tournament that they got into and they won it." Dlugosz went on to post a 307-44-7 record in 19 seasons coaching the men's soccer program, winning a second national title in 1968. Having joined the MCCC engineering faculty in 1962, he also started the men's tennis program and coached it for 35 seasons until 2007. In the process, he has touched countless lives, including the 1963 squad that is set to reunite in November. "I have seen them over the last 40 years and we've been good buddies," Dlugosz says. "We've watched Mercer doing a great job with its soccer and all its sports." Some of the 1963 players starred in other sports, but the Vikings could tell early on that their team was special. Dill, a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, N.J., and one of a number of local standouts, was named an NJCAA first-team All-American and midfielder Joe Bianchini made the All-American second team. Both players made the All-Region 15 first team alongside teammates Doczy, a forward who shared a 20-goals team high with Dill, and Massielo, a back who many thought was just trying to stay in shape for basketball season. Buddy Edolo, a standout shortstop in baseball, flashed his defense as the starting goalie; Rudy Guerds, a high school teammate of Dill's, reunited with him on the front line; and Hoch made the difference at sweeper. "We set up a defense that had five backs with Ronnie as the sweeper. No one was playing five backs at the time and I let my other five players roam all over the field," Dlugosz says of the unusual 1-4-2-3 alignment. "That was one reason we did so well. The backs clicked together and if everybody got past the four backs, Ronnie Hoch would just clear the ball out most of the time." Dlugosz, who didn't have an assistant coach, also relied on forwards Dave Oberly and Rich Staats, midfielders John Azimus, Jim Merriweather, Kevin Sullivan, and backs Lou Guynee, Bud Lawton, Pat Scheffer, Steve Schelva and Lou DiTanna, who also was the backup goalie. Trenton Junior College reached the championship game by routing Warren Wilson Junior College of Swannanoa, N.C., 5-0, in the semifinals. Bianchini and Staats both scored twice and Doczy once in the win. In the final, Massielo and Geurds scored in the first period to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead. But they fell behind 3-2 and needed Massielo's goal in the third quarter to tie the game 3-3 and eventually send it to a 10-minute overtime, which was scoreless. Dill, a team co-captain with Hoch who went on play at the University of Maryland, then scored his amazing goal in sudden death to deliver the national championship. One month later, Dill's exploits earned him a spot in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of Sports Illustrated. "We had a bunch of good players," Dill says. "We really meshed. We had a lot of local kids. At the time, Mercer County was one of the hotbeds for soccer in the nation." "It
was a real good group of players," Masiello adds. "There were
teams that had more talented players, but I think we were tougher." Give a little assist to the rocks and glass. Return
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