Playoff push Taylor made

By: Sean Moylan
   Facing its first real "must win" of the season, the Robbinsville High School varsity field hockey team beat Burlington City, 3-1, in an away contest this past Monday.
   Emilie Taylor erupted for all three of the Ravens’ goals, the first of which was unassisted and gave her team a temporary 1-0 lead at the half.
   "It was a big win," said Robbinsville head coach Judy Goldstein. "We needed it."
   After City scored 30 seconds into the second half, Taylor quickly put her team back in charge with two more tallies, which were set up by Brittany DeAngelis and Molly Welsh.
   "She’s (Taylor) been doing a great job of dodging people," said Goldstein, whose team stayed alive in the playoff hunt with Monday’s win.
   Robbinsville’s Marissa Clark had a strong game as well as goalie Megan Leach, who recorded eight saves in the contest. Robbinsville scored five times in the game but two of its goals were called back, though Goldstein is still not completely sure why.
   "Megan Leach had some (great) multiple saves right in a row," said Goldstein. "We had some nice passing. I liked watching it. They slowed down the game."
   The Ravens had 19 shots on goal to the Blue Devils’ 11.
   Taylor also scored Robbinsville’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss at Hightstown on October 10th.
   "I thought we held our own against Hightstown but that one girl (Jessica Haughton) is very good for them," said Goldstein, whose team held Haughton to just one goal and one assist. Leach kept the game close by making 8 saves. Taylor’s second half goal was assisted by Alyssa Armstrong.
   Last Thursday, Robbinsville was scheduled to have hosted Hopewell Valley, but was canceled by muddy and wet field conditions. Last Friday’s home game versus Notre Dame was also postponed. No makeup dates have been set for either game as of yet. In order to qualify for the playoffs Robbinsville (6-8) needed to have won this past Tuesday’s scheduled night game at Princeton and it needs to win today’s (Thursday) scheduled game at Ewing. Robbinsville (seeded 8th) is scheduled to host Ewing (9th) in Saturday’s opener of the Mercer County Tournament.
   NEHS

   The New Egypt High School field hockey team won all three games it played this past week to improve to 11-2 on the season.
   Heather Garces scored two goals and Margaret Ecke and Laura Sandford added one each in a 4-0 win over Burlington City.
   Katie Cornelius scored two goals and Lindsay Rajeski, Jackie Welsh, Ecke, K. Schmidt and Molly Dixon added a goal each in a 7-0 win over Maple Shade.
   Heather Garces, Sara Sutton and Lindsay Rajeski scored a goal each in a 3-0 win over Riverside.
   AHS

   The Allentown field hockey team won two of the three games it played and is now 9-3-1 on the season.
   In a 5-1 win over Ewing, Michele Najecki scored two goals and Caitlin Crane, Rachel Scheuerman and Kasie Nurko added one each.
   In a 6-1 win over Nottingham, Scheuerman had a hat trick. Nurko, Crane and Angela Scibila added a goal each.
   "The forwards –- Kasie Nurko, Briana Gaum, Rachel Scheuerman and Angela Scibila –- had a great week," Allentown Coach MaryEllen McCarthy said. "We’ve scored over 40 goals this season."
   McCarthy is also quite pleased with the performance of Stephanie Stabulis, the team’s goalie.
   Allentown’s loss last week was to Haddonfield, one of the top ranked teams in the state.
   "We could see them in the playoffs," McCarthy said. "In order to get better, you have to play good teams. Because of that game on Friday, we had a great day of practice on Saturday."