By Matt Cosentino | For NJ Advance Media

It wasn’t quite as dramatic as his last goal against West Deptford, but Alessandro Meucci once again found a way to play the hero in one of South Jersey’s best rivalries.

The Haddonfield senior netted the only goal of the game late in the first half as the host Bulldawgs edged West Deptford, 1-0, in a well-played Colonial Conference-Liberty Division boys soccer game on Tuesday night.

Haddonfield evened its record at 3-3 and improved to 3-1 in the Liberty Division. West Deptford suffered its second straight loss after a 4-0 start and fell to 4-2, 3-2.

The last time the two teams met – also in Haddonfield’s football stadium – was in the first round of the South Jersey, Group 2 playoffs last year. Meucci scored twice in the 2-1 victory, including the game-winner with 40 seconds left.

“I love this rivalry,” he said with a wide smile after Tuesday’s game.

With 7:45 to go in the first half, the Haddonfield defense played a long ball from its end toward midfield. Finn Morgan flicked it with his head past two West Deptford defenders to a streaking Meucci, who got to the ball a split second before charging Eagles keeper Danny Varela.

Meucci got just enough on the ball for it to hit the bottom corner of the empty net and give Haddonfield the only goal it would need.

“I didn’t have any time to think,” he said. “I was just trying to get a touch on the ball and I knew if I did, it had a chance to go in. Last year we had a game under the lights just like this one, and it was also a one-goal game. I scored the last goal in that game too so it was kind of a repeat.”

Haddonfield coach Ryan Nixon credited his striker’s determination for creating the scoring chance.

“It was eerily similar to the goal he scored last year in the playoffs,” he said. “Sandro just had to go hard to the ball. There was one defender to beat and it was almost like a deflection that he got the best of. Obviously that was the difference in the game. The fact that he went hard to the ball on that play and Finn played quickly and early made the difference.”

Both teams hit the crossbar in the first half, and West Deptford also had a golden opportunity to tie the game just a few minutes after Meucci’s goal. A blast from about 30 yards out deflected off a defender and was headed toward the bottom left corner of the goal before Haddonfield keeper Joe Lamb dove and deflected it out of bounds.

“That was a little scary,” Lamb said. “I had to stay focused, I had to stay switched on and I’m just glad I made the save.”

Added Nixon: “That was tremendous. I thought that was a game-saving save. It’s very, very tough to follow the ball when it takes a deflection, especially from that distance. Luckily there was enough distance between the deflection and Joe for him to have the time to compensate and make the save.”

Lamb also made a point-blank save on Kasey Todd early in the second half, and late in the game he came through in another dangerous situation when he chased down a loose ball near the top of the box with several Eagles around him.

“The keeper made one really good save,” West Deptford coach Steve Jakubowski said. “That’s back-to-back games we’ve been shut out and it’s a matter of being hungry. When you face good teams like this, you’re not going to get a ton of chances. So the chances you do get, you need to finish.”

Lamb, a junior, finished with eight saves for the shutout but gave all the credit to his teammates.

“Coming into it we knew it was going to be a good one,” he said. "They always play us tough; they always play us hard. It’s been a rivalry for a while now and we always play a great game against them.

“We all practiced really hard yesterday and we knew what we were coming up against. It was a collective effort, for sure. Whether they started or didn’t start, every single person who touched the field had an impact on the game today.”

Haddonfield improved to 12-0-1 in its last 13 games against West Deptford dating back to 2014. But even though the Bulldawgs have been controlling the rivalry lately, the games are almost always tight and both sides clearly have a lot of respect for each other.

“If it’s not one of the most fun games to be a part of in South Jersey, I don’t know what is,” Nixon said. “It just seems that whenever our team and their team get together, there’s fireworks. It’s always a close game. There’s a ton of passion involved between Haddonfield and West Deptford in any sport. I give those guys a lot of credit; I think Steve and (his assistants) do a tremendous job with their program. Tonight they were well organized and I thought they played us really tough defensively. Just like so often in the past, there were one or two moments in the game that made the difference for us.”

“We’ve been on the bad side of this for a few matches now, a few years,” Jakubowski said. “But I give all the credit to Ryan. He has his guys working hard. They have a game plan and they execute. That’s one thing we didn’t do tonight.”

Both teams trail Haddon Township in the Liberty Division standings but are very much alive in the division race. Haddonfield heads to Haddon Township on Thursday, hoping to hand the Hawks their first loss of the season.

“This was a big game and we wanted it,” Meucci said. “We had a little bit of a rough start this season but now we’re starting to pick it up. We have Township on Thursday and Sterling on Saturday, so if we keep this momentum we can definitely go somewhere.”

West Deptford will look to bounce back Thursday against Sterling, which it defeated 3-0 in the first matchup this season.

“There’s a lot of good teams in this division, especially with the addition of Haddon Township,” Jakubowski said. “I think there’s going to be some things that happen at the top, just because of how strong the teams are. I still think we have a great shot. It’s just a matter of taking it one game at a time and rebounding from these losses on Thursday against Sterling.”