MUSTANG ROUNDUP
By: Rudy Brandl
Sasa Todorovic made a few mistakes but still managed to run a personal-best time in last week’s first cross country meet of the 2006 season.
The Manville High junior finished second in last week’s Skyland Conference quad-meet at Belvidere. Todorovic ran off the tricky 3.1-mile course twice but hit the finish line with a time of 18:40, just 13 seconds behind Bound Brook’s Tom Fitzpatrick.
"Sasa should have won the race easily," MHS head coach Jim O’Connor said. "He made a few key mistakes, but the course was very difficult to follow."
Despite Todorovic’s heroics, the Mustangs were swept in the meet. They lost to host Belvidere (20-41), Bound Brook (19-44) and North Plainfield (20-41) to begin the season at 0-3.
No other Mustangs were able to stay near Todorovic in the race. The next Manville finisher was almost four minutes back. The other four Mustangs in the race finished between places 21 and 29.
Erik Lubas placed 21st in a time of 22:27. Andrew Franco finished 24th in 2:56 in his first high school race. David Le took 26th in 23:15 and newcomer Jason Pfoutz finished 29th in 24:45.
The Mustangs were scheduled to run another regular season meet at North Warren Wednesday. Somerville and South Hunterdon were also set to compete in the Skyland Conference crossover event.
Pierrot puts boys
on the scoreboard
Manville High sophomore Danny Pierrot scored the first goal for the boys’ varsity soccer team this fall, but it wasn’t enough to produce a victory.
After being blanked in the first three games of the season, the Mustangs dropped a 3-1 decision to Belvidere in last Tuesday night’s Senior Parents Night game. Belvidere scored twice early in the game before the Mustangs rallied.
Manville owned a 16-10 edge in shots on goal but that didn’t translate into a victory. The Mustangs defeated Belvidere 4-2 last season.
The MHS boys made the long road trip to Alexandria to face Delaware Valley Thursday and came home on the short end of a 3-0 decision. Goalkeeper Andrew Saultz made nine stops but the offense couldn’t get anything going at the other end of the field.
Manville (0-5) was scheduled to host Bound Brook and Somerville this week.

