South must replace four valuable seniors
By: Justin Feil
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ lacrosse team knew that Hunterdon Central was a very good team, but didn’t know how good until the two squad met in the North A state tournament’s first round on Tuesday.
The Pirates saw their season end with a 13-8 loss to the No. 6 seed, despite their best effort and four goals by Gio Buono.
"I wish we would have played them last week," said Pirate head coach Kris Squitieri of the matchup that was scheduled but called off after no referees showed up. "We could have got a look at them.
"But we were only down by one for a couple minutes and we kept it close all game. They were just really good."
Buono’s fourth goal of the game, and third straight, helped WW-PS rally from a 9-5 second-half deficit to bring them within one goal, 9-8. But the Pirates couldn’t score the rest of the way.
"They really gave Gio a hard time and she still scored four goals," said Squitieri, whose team ended its campaign 10-5. "Their defense was great. We had trouble just getting shots off. They just had girls all over the field who could score. They’re a great team."
Squitieri and the Pirates will return plenty of players who gained experience in the game, but lose four seniors.
"Unfortunately, it’s four really good ones," said Squitieri of Buono, Cristina Ciappetta, Jenna Fucetola and Jacey Thorsen. "We had a couple sophomores starting lately who have been playing a lot more. They’ll all be experienced next year, which will be good.
"The sophomores got a taste of this level. We had a couple games this year like that. Hopefully they’ll grow quickly from playing teams like this. They’ve grown a lot though, especially our sophomore goalie Marielle (Zibman). It’s going to help them."
The Pirates just wish their final lesson didn’t have to come in a season-ending loss in the state tournament.