Girls just miss in bid for upset
By: Caryoln M. Hartko
Of all the first round match-ups in this year’s Greater Middlesex Conference Girls’ Soccer Tournament, the game most likely to produce an upset was the one between 10th-seeded Monroe and 7th-seeded Spotswood. The Lady Falcons came close to pulling it off, but a goal with two minutes remaining in regulation gave the Chargers a 2-1 victory, advancing them to Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Spotswood drew first blood on Tuesday when Carolyn Logan scored 12 minutes in off an assist by Erin Mooney. With three minutes remaining in the first half, Monroe’s Megan Farrell finally cracked the Chargers’ defense.
"They had a lot of defenders back in the box," Farrell said. "I was playing center half, and I had a lot of room. I just took a shot from outside the 18, and I caught the keeper off her line. It went in over her head."
Monroe outshot Spotswood 13-10 over the course of the game, but the Falcons struggled with a familiar problem.
"We needed to score," Falcon head coach Matt DeFilippis said. "We’re still having trouble finishing, putting the ball in the net, following the shots – that kind of thing."
It looked like the game was headed to overtime, but Spotswood was able to capitalize on a corner kick. Logan sent the ball into the center where Angela Generelli hit it into the net off the bounce.
Monroe had actually been placed in a good bracket this year. Spotswood will play North Brunswick in the quarters, and the winner of that game will face the winner of Thursday’s South Brunswick/Woodbridge game in the semis on Saturday.
"I thought our seeding was fair," DeFilippis said. "I had no problem with (number 10)."
Monroe will now put all its efforts into preparing for the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II Tournament. Although DeFilippis expects to be playing Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, the school still hasn’t been notified about the particulars. Part of that may be because the high school is closed while environmental tests are being performed to determine the cause of a number of symptoms experienced by mostly staff members.
As of press time, the earliest the school will reopen is this coming Monday, but it could be closed through the weekend of the teachers’ convention. In spite of the fact that classes have been suspended, the administration has gone out of its way to keep athletics and band activities going.
"We’ve been doing everything that we normally do," DeFilippis said. "They even ran the buses for us in the late afternoon to pick the athletes up so that they can make it to practice at two. Things have been running pretty smooth. It’s just waiting for information about states and stuff like that, that’s not what it normally would be."
So the Lady Falcons will be able to get practices in to prepare for their first state game. According to Farrell, the girls should put in some time on conditioning.
"We’re kind of out of shape, and that’s hurting us," the junior said. "There were a lot of through balls that (Spotswood) was sending today. Our defense was having trouble getting back there. We’re getting tired. So, we need to work on conditioning, and marking tighter, especially on defense. (The opponent’s) getting a lot of room, and a lot of open space, and it’s just creating havoc."

