This postseason being down a goal against the Millburn boys soccer team is like being trapped beneath an 800 pound weight: There’s nothing you can do and the end is inevitable.

The Millburn boys beat the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Raiders 1-0 Friday afternoon in Scotch Plains, winning the North II Group 3 state sectional championship for the second straight season.

The win marked Millburn’s third consecutive 1-0 win this postseason and their fourth straight shutout. They have not given up a goal in the playoffs, and few teams have even come close. It was also the third straight contest in which an underclassmen scored the lone goal.

With approximately 45 seconds left in the first half, Miller James Raystin took a shot at the Scotch Plains net-minder, who deflected it to junior Dennis Kachintsev, who found an opening and put the rebound in for the score. It was the junior’s first tally of the season and it was all Millburn would need as the defense went to work.

“Once I saw James lining up for the shot, I just went,” Kachintsev said. “I just knew that the goalie wasn’t really confident, it was a slick field, the ball was new, anything can happen there. You just have to follow that up.”

“We have three out of our four defenders who last year were on the state championship team,” said Millburn head coach Rob Grosso. “So the experience of being able to play in playoffs and state tournament stuff really pays off. I think that experience is what’s making the difference for us.”

It’s not as if the Scotch Plains boys didn’t have any chances. They just didn’t have any really good ones. For the first time in this postseason, Millburn was actually out-shot, 9-8, but five saves from Millburn’s Corbin Stevens and a superb defensive effort from Jeff Wang, Chris Benedict, Tony Miller and Max Okinow made the difference.

“It’s really just communication,” Wang said. “Chris and I have been playing together since we were 8 or 9 years old. So we really know how each other thinks. Max and Miller, they played a fantastic game today. We just communicated. We were able to handle them.”

There were three yellow cards issued in the second half, but aside from that there was not much action inside either teams' goal box. Each team made a few runs, but either a bad kick, a faulty pass or a defender’s foot spoiled any good scoring chances.

Scotch Plains ended its season with a stellar 19-3 record, reaching the sectional finals for the second consecutive season.

“I think it was certainly a tough loss for our guys because we have a senior dominated team and we had very high intentions and we do have an outstanding team,” said Scotch Plains-Fanwood head coach Tom Breznitsky. “Unfortunately for the first half of the game today, I don’t think we played up to our caliber and that was a little bit of a disappointment.”

Millburn continues its defense of the Group 3 championship, moving on to play against 19-4 Montville at Indian Hills High School on Tuesday. Millburn is 14-5-2, and playing as well as they have all season long.

“It means a lot. We definitely want to repeat,” Wang said of winning today. “We’ll have to step it up because there’s good competition out there. Hopefully we’ll play a good game.”