Cougars advance to SCT semifinals
By: Bob Nuse
As the only senior in the starting lineup for the Montgomery High girls’ soccer team, Shannon Hayes takes the role of leader very seriously.
"I feel really responsible," said Hayes, a center midfielder for the Cougars. "But everyone steps up and helps. It’s not just me. I try to lead as much as possible, but it’s hard when you’re the only senior out there. But all the juniors really step up and help out, especially getting everyone focused before a game.
"It is kind of strange because last year there were so many seniors that started. I feel like once just one thing goes wrong, I come down really hard on myself."
Not much has gone wrong for the Cougars this year. On Saturday, they broke a scoreless deadlock at halftime with two second-half goals to beat Bernards, 2-0, in the quarterfinals of the Somerset County Tournament.
With the win, the top-seeded Cougars advanced to take on fourth-seeded Hillsborough in the SCT semifinals on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Bridgewater. It was Hillsborough that handed the Cougars their only loss of the season when they prevailed, 1-0, earlier this year. Montgomery improved to 12-1 with the win on Saturday.
Against Bernards, the Cougars dominated play for the first 40 minutes, but came away with a scoreless tie. Alex Vazquez broke the tie with a goal assisted by Carey Youmans just over six minutes into the second half. Just under two minutes later, Vazquez assisted on a goal by Emily Knesevitch.
"We took too long to score," Hayes said. "We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t put one away in the first half. Usually we put one away pretty quickly. I have the worst luck ever. I just can not finish. I hit the post every game."
For a while, this game started to feel like the Cougars’ SCT quarterfinal game of a year ago, when they dropped a 1-0 decision to Somerville.
"In this game, anything can happen," Montgomery coach Jeremy Beardsley said. "Somerville last year, you could say the same thing that we dominated the whole game. And then with a minute to go, a junky ball goes into the box and bounces over the goalie and we lose, 1-0. In this game you just never know.
"But today, our lock down team defense didn’t allow them to do anything. We did a great job of covering spaces, pressuring the ball and covering for each other to never allow them to do anything on the attack."
The shutout was the fourth straight and ninth overall for Montgomery, which is having a great season despite the loss of several starters to graduation from the team that shared the state Group III title last year.
While there were plenty of senior leaders a year ago, this year there is Hayes, who does her best to fill a big role.
"She’s the heart of team," Beardsley said. "She’s the emotional player. She wears her heart on her sleeve and brings it every day. She’s vocal, energetic and passionate. We have a lot of good players. But she being a senior and one of the captains, is really the heart of the team.
"Last year she started every game and played all the time, but at a different position. This year we have moved her inside to compensate for graduation and she’s playing a different role now. She was a left midfielder and now she is a center midfielder."
The move to center midfield allows Hayes to be involved in more of the play, but it has cut down on her own scoring. After scoring nine goals and adding nine assists last year, she has seen her totals dip to three goals and (a team-high) six assists this season. But Beardsley knows what Hayes brings to the team can’t be measured by the number of goals she scores.
"Last year she scored a good amount of goals, but her role has changed," the Cougar coach said. "She has a good amount of assists now. She distributes the ball and is playing more of a playmaker role. Every year is different in high school. We deal with what we have and try to put people into positions to be successful. I think she and Bri (Miller) in the midfield form a very nice tandem in the center midfield.
"Shannon is always around the play and always in the mix. She wants to be a part of it and that shows she has confidence and wants the ball in a big spot."
Hayes is also enjoying the idea of helping to bring along some of the younger Cougar players. There are a number of players contributing at the varsity level for the first time, and she’s happy with the way those players have developed.
"They’re awesome," Hayes said. "We have great team chemistry. A lot of people didn’t think the chemistry would be as good as last year, but it is definitely just as good this year.
"Alex Vazquez has stepped up amazingly. She started for us as a freshman last year. But she is a totally different player this year. She is so solid. She has a lot more confidence this year. She had it in her last year, but she just has so much more confidence this year. Last year she was so quiet. Now this year she’s loud and more aggressive."
That sounds a lot like Hayes, who can be very vocal on the field and does what she can to lead the team.
"I try to lead by example on the field and do my best," she said. "Usually, when me and Bri are playing well, the rest of the team is playing well. We try to control it and set the game tone in the center midfield."
So far she’s been doing a great job, as have all the Cougars. Montgomery hasn’t slowed down at all this season, picking up right where it left off even with so many new players in key roles.
"That’s what I am most proud of with our teams here," Beardsley said. "They really buy into this system. It seems to work right now. That doesn’t means it’s always going to work. But if you can hold teams down and you stay organized, you give yourself a chance.
"If you can’t do that, you’ll still win some games. But it could be coming from behind and you have to change things. I’m not pleased with the way we finished today, especially in the first half. Today worried me because it started off looking a lot like Somerville. But it changed once we got that first goal."
And then the Cougars liked like the team they have been all season one that’s real tough to beat.

