RAIDER ROUNDUP
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough High girls’ soccer team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday at South Brunswick, but the 5-2 loss didn’t do any damage in the Delaware Division title chase.
Hillsborough entered the week with a 5-1 record, having won five straight divisional games prior to Saturday’s road setback. The Lady Raiders expected to be tested vs. Watchung Hills and Bridgewater this week, especially playing without injured star midfielder Danae Risoli, who should be back in time for the Somerset County Tournament.
Saturday’s game turned into a wild one, with six goals scored in the second half. The HHS girls led 1-0 at the break and tied the game again at 2-2 in the 11th minute of the second half when Sara Fedorczyk scored her second goal of the game. Renee Kelly and Katelyn Powers recorded the assists for the Lady Raiders.
South Brunswick scored three more goals in a span of 17 minutes to win easily. Katie DiGiovanni was busy in goal with 14 saves, including 10 in the first half.
Hillsborough head coach Cindy Vacacela felt her troops became tired in the second half of Saturday’s contest, especially after making a long trip to Phillipsburg the previous day. The Lady Raiders were sluggish in the early stages of Friday’s game before waking up to score five goals in the second half for a 5-0 triumph.
Kelly, a freshman midfielder, netted her first career hat trick, scoring the team’s second, third and fifth goals. All three goals were unassisted and came within a span of 20 minutes. Natalie Inman scored the game’s first goal on a penalty kick at 3:09 of the second half. Fedorczyk tallied the other goal on a feed from Kaitlin Wagner.
HHS opened the week with a 1-0 win over Warren Hills. Fedorczyk converted an Inman cross in the 52nd minute for the goal, but the Lady Raiders could have scored a bunch more. They hit the post three times in the first half and took 40 shots.
DiGiovanni turned aside nine shots for her second shutout.
Yates shines for
unbeaten gymnasts
Kim Yates reached the 37-point plateau for the second straight meet to lead Hillsborough to a 105.55-97.35 victory over Bridgewater in a gymnastics dual meet last week.
The HHS senior swept all four events and the all-around for the second time this season. Yates scored 9.25 on vault, 9.4 on beam, 9.25 on bars and 9.1 on floor.
Hillsborough went 1-2 in three events and had a third place in the other. Kristen Watts finished second in the all-around (34.575) thanks to solid scores on vault (2nd, 9.1), floor (2nd, 8.775) and bars (3rd, 7.95). Ashley Miller finished second on beam (9.1).
Hillsborough was scheduled to host two good teams Westfield and Randolph in dual meet action this week.
Tennis team faces
tough schedule
The HHS girls’ tennis team faced some rigorous competition last week and dropped matches to Immaculata, Hunterdon Central and Watchung Hills to fall to 2-3 on the season.
Friday’s loss to unbeaten powerhouse Watchung (5-0) wasn’t close. Hillsborough’s five spots managed only 17 games, but 14 of those came in tight matches at third singles and second doubles.
Third singles player Kristen Shoop and the Jen Wagner-Carolyn Chen doubles unit lost by identical 6-4, 6-3 scores. Singles players Katie Merriam and Catherine Kinrade lost their matches quickly and the Sara Lavell-Erin Aiello tandem also fell in straight sets.
Hillsborough started the week with a 5-0 loss to Immaculata. Shoop was the only Raider to win a set, taking Jen O’Neil the distance before dropping a 2-6, 6-0, 6-4 decision.
The Wagner-Chen unit scored a tough team point in the 4-1 loss to Central. Hillsborough’s second doubles team beat Beth Horn and Cailen Poles by a 7-6, 6-2 score.
Merriam won a first set tie-breaker from Talie Fuhrman but lost the next two sets 6-3, 6-1. Kinrade and Shoop also played tough in defeat.
Cross country teams
hammer Phillipsburg
The HHS girls placed the first seven runners while the boys posted five of the first seven finishers in lopsided cross country victories over Phillipsburg.
Sophomore Ashley Uniszkiewicz finished 1:27 ahead of anyone else to take the girls’ race in a time of 20:47. Jessica Tsai was also running alone in second (22:14).
The rest of the girls ran within 37 seconds of each other. Amanda Walzer was third (23:21) followed by Eileen Cafferty (23:22), Ingrid Mellor (23:49), Caitlin Kosec (23:56) and Katie King (23:58). The Hillsborough seven posted a 15-50 shutout.
Mike Klueber won the boys’ race in 17:19 to lead the Raiders to an 18-43 victory. Other Raiders in the top 10 were Matt Lunemann (2nd, 17:45), Nick Vaccaro (3rd, 17:49), Jared Lewinski (5th, 18:16) and Kani Brown (7th, 18:36).
Both Raider teams were scheduled to compete against North Hunterdon and Warren Hills this week before a major test vs. mighty Hunterdon Central and Watchung Hills next week.
Field hockey skid
reaches three games
Losses to South Hunterdon and Warren Hills, two more teams ranked in the state’s top 20, ran Hillsborough’s field hockey losing streak to three in a row. After starting the season with two straight wins, the Raiders started their skid with a 2-1 loss to Hunterdon Central.
Team scoring leader Jenn Geigert was blanked in the goal scoring department in last week’s games, a 4-2 loss to South Hunterdon and 3-0 shutout at Warren Hills. Hillsborough has been outscored 9-3 during the three losses.
Alex Janos and Kelly Chan scored goals against the Eagles, while Geigert was credited with an assist. South broke open a 1-1 game at the half with three goals in the second half. HHS goalkeeper Dana Scarantino made nine saves.
The Raiders were hoping to get back on the winning track last Friday afternoon, but a home game vs. Phillipsburg was rained out. Hillsborough was scheduled to play at Watchung Hills before returning home for a big game vs. Bridgewater-Raritan tomorrow afternoon.