There the ball was at right outside the top of the 18 just waiting for him.

Following a long service by All-State defender Devin Pearce in between several Montclair players and into the Scotch Plains-Fanwood attacking third, there was Scotch Plains freshman midfielder Anastasio "Taso" Pavlou to collect it.

Pavlou came hard charging from the right side to the center of the field, got in a bit of a tangle but ultimately touched the ball past the Montclair defender and right as the ball was on the ground in between him and the defender in open space, he contorted his body and eventually corralled it.

He then took two steps and on the third, rocketed a shot into the bottom left corner of the goal, just 1:57 into overtime and gave No. 16 Scotch Plains-Fanwood a 3-2 win over No. 10 Montclair.

"As soon as I got there, it was just about me getting there," Pavlou said. "The whole time, I knew that ball was mine and I just used my body to get through the guy and got the finish."

The goal is certainly the biggest of Pavlou's young career to date, but it wasn't his first. He scored twice in SPF's opening 5-0 win against Plainfield last week, which he felt gave him some much needed confidence.

"It made me feel like I could do more things, especially if the guys are seniors and I'm only a freshman and they're like three times my size," Pavlou said. "I know that I can get through them and finish my chances and score goals."

But playing for Scotch Plains-Fanwood isn't easy.

The program has long been one of the state's best and there's an expectation that comes with that. Even for freshmen.

"He's very poised, calm on the ball and he's an intelligent player who doesn't play like a freshman," Scotch Plains coach Alex Passucci said. "I think they [the freshmen] are fearless and they love to compete. And here we set the bar high and he and they all do a great job."

It's not just the freshmen who impressed in Scotch Plains' upset win. Junior Jayvon Young netted two of Scotch Plains' other three goals, first scoring three minutes into the second half to tie the game at 1-1 and then again with eight minutes left to put SPF up 2-1.

"He's athletic, he's got a lot of pace and he's very good 1-on-1 going at defenders," Passucci said of his standout striker.

Other teams are well aware of Young's scoring prowess and often try to man mark him, or more, during games to limit his damage.

That was the case for a time on Monday, but as Young has done often before, he found a way to finish.

"At the beginning of the game, they were definitely cutting off my inside and that's why I had a little trouble," Young said. "I had to readjust at halftime and find some different moves and that's what I did and put two in the back of the net."

It wasn't just the offense for Scotch Plains that was impressive. Defensively, the Raiders didn't allow a goal in the run of play, with both of Montclair's goals coming on penalty kicks and the Mounties got very few truly good, open looks at the goal.

It was the first game for the Mounties, who had significant size, especially in the midfield. But as coach Toure Watson pointed out, while there are many seniors on this team, only three are returning starters and a select few saw significant time last year.

"There were moments I was happy with, but there are a lot of things we also need to clean up. There's moments where we looked good and then there were also some lapses," Watson said. "It's two good teams -- two heavyweights -- going at it and I think this game can kind of be a wakeup call of what it takes."

Jake Aferiat can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him at @Jake_Aferiat.