South girls’ soccer had special year
By: Justin Feil
Chris Miller may have had teams go farther in the state tournament, or win more games in the Colonial Valley Conference, but she’s going to miss the 2005 West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ soccer team a lot.
Tears flowed freely after the sixth-seeded Pirates lost, 3-1, to No. 2 Middletown North in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinals on Thursday. The outcome was upsetting in itself against a team WW-P South thought it was better than. The fact that the group that bonded so quickly to go 13-4-1 would not be playing together anymore made it all the more painful.
"I have such a good team this year," Miller said. "It’s one of the very best teams I’ve ever coached. The talent I have is good, but they are just more cohesive team-wise in every position. That cohesiveness extends to every kid on the bench. They are more together and more team-oriented than any team I’ve coached. It makes it more hurtful that they got victimized by a little combination of they didn’t play their best soccer and every bounce went against them and they just couldn’t put the ball in the net again."
WW-P South fell behind, 1-0, on the first goal of the game by Jen Anzinvio, but Kelly McLaughlin brought it even again, 1-1, barely five minutes later in the first half.
"I thought we were going to come off (for halftime) with it tied," Miller said. "They ended up with a bad bounce and a girl pounced on it. Jen Anzinvio, she’s dangerous. She got it and went 1-on-1 with Lauren (Fucetola, Pirates’ goalkeeper) and scored. Even then I wasn’t too worried.
"I thought my girls would put one more in, at least. I thought they’d be the one putting two more goals in. They didn’t possess more. Yet, they made the most of their chances and we didn’t. They capitalized."
Neither team scored for most of the second half. Middletown North put the finishing touches on with a goal in the closing minutes of play.
"I thought we could get even until the end," Miller said. "There was less than five minutes left when they scored their third goal. It was the icing on the cake goal. After that, you could see our girls were so deflated. They were disgusted with themselves not to be able to finish their chances and not to be able to beat a team they knew wasn’t better than them.
"I didn’t mind losing to Pennington," she continued of the Pirates’ MCT semifinal loss. "They left everything on the field. They scared Pennington. They had nothing to be ashamed of. I hate losing to a team we should have beat. If we could have a rematch we would beat them, I think. But it doesn’t work that way. You wish you had a World Series situation. I’m sure Steinert feels that way about us."
The Pirates reached the CJ IV semifinals with a dramatic 5-4 shootout win over Steinert just days earlier. No other Colonial Valley Conference team had beaten the Spartans in two years.
"Nothing can take away from some of the goals they accomplished," Miller said. "They wanted to beat (WW-P) North and they did that. They wanted to beat Steinert and did that. They made a good run at the Mercer County title and made a decent run at the state title. Nothing can take away the beautiful soccer and exciting style they played. What they accomplished this year was pretty good, not bad at all. I’ll take what they accomplished any year."
Miller knows full well that this year’s level of success won’t be easy to duplicate, not without the six departing seniors. The Pirates lose all four of their captains Lauren Fucetola, Kelly McLaughlin, Kris Shemming and Kate Wyman.
"All four have been with the program for four years each," Miller noted. "Kris, Kelly and Lauren have played varsity really since freshman year. The others came later. My seniors are just quality kids in every way, shape and form. They are tremendous leaders. They’re passionate about the game of soccer. The relationship they have with their teammates and underclassmen, they’ve been good role models and teachers. They just really like each other."
It made for one of the best seasons in program history. It makes it all the harder for Chris Miller and the Pirates to say good-bye after such an enjoyable year on and off the field.

