Lady Raiders endure tough week

Drop pair against county foes

By: Rudy Brandl
   The Hillsborough High girls’ soccer team found out the hard way why Bridgewater-Raritan didn’t receive any resistance from area coaches in its claim for the top seed in the upcoming Somerset County Tournament.
   B-R roared out of the gates to score twice in the first 12 minutes and wound up cruising to a 6-1 victory in last Thursday’s key Delaware East Division game in Hillsborough. Now the Lady Raiders know what they’ll be up against when county tournament action begins this weekend.
   The HHS girls played hard and spirited soccer in the first half and cut the deficit to 2-1 after head coach LeeAnn Wyble changed her alignment back to a more typical 4-4-2 set. Wyble was beating herself up on the sideline for opening the game in a 5-4-1 formation with a double stopper. She hoped to silence the B-R attack with this defensive-minded scheme but it did not work. When the Lady Raiders scored shortly after Wyble sent in an extra forward, she felt even worse about her strategy.
   "I didn’t want them to take shots on our keeper," Wyble said. "I thought with an extra girl in the back it would help stop them."
   There was a good reason for Wyble’s conservative approach. The Lady Raiders were coming off more than just a very tough 1-0 loss to Montgomery. HHS goalkeeper Taryn O’Connor suffered a concussion at Montgomery and was not available for Thursday’s game against the high-flying Panthers. O’Connor was brilliant against Montgomery and her absence was a key factor against one of the area’s most talented offensive squads.
   Wyble inserted freshman Kristina Wagner into the fire and the results were not unexpected. Wyble doesn’t have a true backup varsity keeper so she turned to Wagner, who saw action in goal during middle school.
   "She’s not even a goalie, she’s a forward," Wyble said. "She’s a good athlete and she had more experience in goal than any of our other players."
   Wagner did her best and made a handful of saves but the Panthers proved to be quicker and very strong-footed. Jazz Farrell produced the first two goals with speed rushes down the left wing. She took it herself and curled back in for a breakaway goal in the fifth minute and made a similar move to set up Jackie Greco, who drilled a perfect shot into the upper right corner for a 2-0 lead.
   The Lady Raiders did not quit. They played with more intensity and controlled the action for most of the rest of the half. Lauren Ebert scored off a Lauren Cusick free kick assist in the 23rd minute and it was a 2-1 game.
   Hillsborough continued pressing but couldn’t tie the score. Instead, B-R scored the all-important next goal for a 3-1 cushion at the half. Chelsea Regan blasted in a free kick for the first of her three goals on the day.
   "We started picking it up and scored a goal," Ebert said. "Then we got unlucky with that free kick. Once they scored at the beginning of the second half, we stopped running and we stopped moving around."
   Wyble was not happy with her team’s performance in the second half. The Panthers came out and scored within the first minute and dominated the rest of the game, even with substitutes on the field.
   "A loss is a loss, but we still want to play with pride and intensity," Wyble said. "We have to build some confidence."
   Ebert agreed.
   "We’re not very confident right now," the senior center midfielder said. "We stopped playing today. We need to work on our confidence."
   Despite the difference in margin of defeat, the Lady Raiders and their coach were more impressed with Montgomery than Bridgewater. The HHS girls defeated B-R last year after losing in the first match. They’ll play the Panthers at least one more time and could see them in the county semifinals since they’re in the same half of the SCT bracket.
   The HHS girls know what they need to do the next time they face B-R. They must do a better job marking on defense and take more shots on offense.
   "We’re not getting back in transition," Wyble said. "We were getting back to areas, but we’re doing too much ball-watching. We’re not recovering on a man. And we’re not taking enough shots."
   The Lady Raiders learned something from their defeat and expect those facts to help them perform better in October.