Jeff Fisher has been coaching long enough to know that the best-laid strategy doesn’t always work out.
“No,” the Robbinsville High boys soccer coach said with a laugh. “It never goes fully the way you plan. Especially if the other coach makes adjustments throughout the game.”
Which is why every team needs a Chris Lewis. Call him every cliché in the book: jack-of-all-trades, Swiss Army knife, multi-threat. But when a guy is as versatile as the Ravens senior forward, he can help counter the opposition’s tweaks.
“Whatever we need in the moment, he’ll give us,” Fisher said. “If it’s more control in the midfield we’ll drop him in midfield. If we need a goal we’ll put him up top. He’s a little of everything.”
What the Ravens needed at the season’s outset was strong backs.
Because Robbinsville graduated some top-line defenders last year, Lewis was moved to center back despite the fact he was the team’s leading returning scorer with 16 goals and seven assists. At 6-foot-2, he was able to get after headers and was also adept at controlling the ball and pushing it forward.
“He’s such a talented guy that he can play back there,” Fisher said. “He’s everything you need as a defender and he was doing a really good job.”
But Robbinsville was just 3-1-2 in the first six games and in its three non-wins produced just one goal.
“We were missing something as a team to really start going,” Fisher said. “After our loss to West Orange, we decided to push him back up the field. From that point, he’s been playing attack, wide, attacking center-midfield, defensive center-mid.”
And he helped put the Ravens in a fight for a top-two seed in the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament, which began the week of Oct. 20.
Following the move, Robbinsville won eight straight before falling to Lawrence, scoring 31 goals in the process. Lewis had six goals and six assists during that time and was second on the team in scoring to junior Noah Goldberg (18 goals, seven assists).
No one was happier than Lewis, who felt good to be home.
“It’s just my natural position up there, I’m not really a center back,” he said. “I’m happy Fish put me up there. I think I’m good at one v ones, I’m good at finishing in the box. I think I’m good everywhere. Inside the box, outside the box. I guess I’m just like a natural scorer.”
That he is.
In a game against Steinert, during which he plagued the Spartans with a hat trick for the second straight year, he scored in all different ways. The most impressive was a shot from the left flank at a nearly impossible angle that went in the long side.
“Chris is naturally an offensive player, usually playing one of the front three,” Fisher said. “Sophomore year he came on and really carved out a big role for us on a really good team. Last year he stepped up and became more of a goal scoring threat.”
What made it easier for Fisher when he moved Lewis to defense is that his forward-by-trade never complained about playing with his back to his own goal and provided the grunt work necessary.
“It definitely is nice,” the coach said. “He’s willing to do whatever it is. If that’s winning a head ball in the back, going back for free kicks or corner kicks, or scoring on a head ball he’s gonna make an impact somewhere on the field. . . .if not everywhere on the field. He could be one of the best center backs in he area if he wanted to be.”
He would rather be one of the best scorers in the area, considering that’s what he has done most of his career.
Lewis began with Robbinsville recreation soccer at age 5, then played travel soccer for the Robbinsville Soccer Association.
“I had a lot of players who are on the high school team now with that travel team,” he recalled. “I’m close with a lot of them so that was good.”
From there, he went to Match-Fit, and when that team disbanded, he moved on to Trenton City. It was at TC where he first played in the back.
“We had a bunch of attack players, so I figured I might as well go to center back and help the team,” he said. “It was a big adjustment.”
Lewis played for the Ravens freshman team and became a varsity starter for the Central Jersey Group II champions as a sophomore.
“That adjustment was hard, it was my first year and it was kind of crazy,” he said. “We had a great team with Mitchell (Shapiro), Ethan (Pagani), Brody (Kaplan) and Marco (Parisi). They made it easy.”
With Nick Grippa, Pagani and Shapiro handling the scoring, Lewis had a modest four goals and two assists but contributed in other ways.
With the Ravens in need of firepower last season, Lewis broke out offensively and was second on the team in goals and assists to Nico Matthews. Knowing that the defense was losing players, Lewis told Fisher at season’s end that he could play center back if needed, and the coach took him up on it.
When the offense struggled, the easy part was moving Lewis up. The hard part was finding someone to replace him.
Enter Sukhi Sandhu.
Due to starting goalie Alex Rusk’s injury, Sandhu was in goal for the first four games. When Lewis was moved up, the sophomore was moved to right back.
“He’s been able to fill a really good role and do a good job, which allowed us to push Chris up more comfortably,” Fisher said. “Obviously Aarush (Singh), Lucas (Messinger) and Ethan (Neagle) have also been doing a fantastic job back there to make that work as well.
“Chris never complained, but you could just tell his heart was more into trying to get forward and helping the team up there. The confidence in the other defenders that they were able to do the job without Chris helped us make the move. Some of the other guys showed they could handle it and they wanted him to go up because they knew they could still hold down the fort in the back. And it’s kind of unleashed him into more of the role he’s had the last two years, so I think he’s very happy right now.”
Actually, if he’s on the pitch, he’s happy. His dad gave him a soccer ball at age 3, and he has never looked back.
“It’s the most meaningful thing in my life right now,” Lewis said. “I’m thinking of going to college for soccer. I’m looking at upstate New York schools. That’s were my grandparents live so I’m trying to be close to them.”
Fisher feels that Lewis will make a difference wherever he lands.
“He’s a great kid,” the coach said. “Sometimes he’s laid back, he’s real passive, sometimes we gotta light that fire under him. When we do he’s unstoppable. That’s his personality. He’s a really nice kid, a good leader, does everything we ask out of him. You can win with 11 of those kind of guys.”
