HHS faces No. 1 Brick Memorial in quarters
By: Rudy Brandl
The Hillsborough High girls want to play more soccer.
Monday afternoon’s impressive 7-0 rout of North Brunswick in the first round of the Central Jersey Group 4 playoffs shows the Lady Raiders have recovered from their loss to Pingry in Saturday’s Somerset County finals.
Eighth-ranked Hillsborough (12-5-2) earned the right to challenge No. 1 Brick Memorial (14-0) in the CJ 4 quarterfinals Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m.
"The state tournament is a whole new season," HHS head coach LeeAnn Wyble said. "You win, you play. You lose, you go home."
Last year, the HHS season ended abruptly when the team suffered losses in the county finals and state playoffs within less than 24 hours. Hillsborough still had weary legs from a Sunday night loss to Pingry and the team didn’t have enough energy the next day and was eliminated by West Windsor Plainsboro South in the first round of the state playoffs.
The SCT finals were moved from Sunday to Saturday this year so no team would be forced to play two big games on consecutive days. The Lady Raiders made good use of the extra time to prepare for the state playoffs.
Wyble met her girls for a Sunday morning breakfast, where the team discussed goals and held a positive reinforcement session. They needed to get past their second straight runner-up finish in the county tournament and move on.
"They’re OK with it because they give Pingry a lot of respect," Wyble said. "They know Pingry is a great team so they don’t have anything to be ashamed of."
Junior striker Mary Bednar had a career day Monday, scoring twice and setting a single-game school record with four assists. Bednar tied the school mark with 13 assists for the season.
Bednar set up Lauren Ebert in the 14th minute and fed Dana Rokoszak in the 25th minute before scoring herself with two minutes left in the first half. Bednar opened the scoring in the second half before Ebert made it 5-0 off a feed from Katie Marino. Bednar assisted on the last two goals by Heather Mutz and Stephanie Vrakas.
Goalkeepers Taryn O’Connor and Jodi Carpenter made three saves apiece to complete the shutout.
Wyble believes beating teams like Ridge and Bridgewater-Raritan and competing against Pingry gives her team a shot in Brick Township against the three-time defending State Group 4 champs. The Lady Raiders must come out ready and not fall behind early like they did against Pingry.
"We’re going to try to come out strong in the beginning, because we’re not good with that," Wyble said. "They don’t score a lot of goals. If we can get up on them, then we can play with the lead."

