By: Rich Fisher
The Greater Middlesex Conference girls soccer tournament gets underway Friday and, while East Brunswick is probably the favorite, who can really tell this season?
There have been a flurry of shockers in the GMC recently, including Edison’s tie with the Bears South Brunswick has pulled a few mild upsets of its own, beating fourth-ranked Metuchen earlier this year, and taking a 1-0 win over sixth-ranked Monroe this past Saturday.
Granted, those are GMC White Division teams and South is in the larger Red, but they were still quality wins.
"It’s been an interesting season," said Viking coach Nancy Ducko, whose 5-5-2 team won two straight entering Wednesday’s key game with Edison. "A lot of the teams that have been consistent with their wins are playing Blue Division games, some are playing in the Gold Division.
"But you can’t compare Red Division wins with some of the Blue wins some other teams have had. Our record may not be as good as some of the others, however we play tougher competition consistently throughout the season."
And that competition paid off with a No. 5 seed in the GMCT. The Vikings will host 12th-seeded Bishop Ahr Tuesday in a second-round game. SBHS did not have to play a preliminary round and got a first-round bye.
"We haven’t played Bishop Ahr in a couple of years, but they’re always pretty aggressive and they work hard," Ducko said. "We can expect it to be a relatively intense game. It’s not like a prelim where you’re playing a 24th seed.
"This is going to be a good round for us. Two or three years ago we were knocked out in the first round by Metuchen, so we can’t take anyone lightly just because of the division they play in."
If the Vikings are going to make a run in the tournament, they must continue to play their stellar defense, which recorded two straight shutouts prior to Wednesday’s game.
"Our defense has been consistent and, overall, we have improved in the areas we know we need to improve in," Ducko said. "We need to keep improving, we’re not to the point in our season we can relax.
"I’m very happy with our seed, and a little surprised. I think anything can happen on any given day. We have to get past that mental block with East Brunswick. It should help them to see that we beat Old Bridge and Old Bridge beat EB."
Aside from the GMC’s, the Vikings put themselves in position to clinch a state berth Wednesday if they could beat Edison for the second time in a week.
Last Thursday, Carissa Walters’ first-half goal and Susie Miller’s five saves in goal gave the Vikings a 1-0 victory over Edison. The game was halted at halftime due to heavy rains.
"We dominated the first half," said Ducko, whose team launched 13 shots on the Eagles.
On Saturday, Danielle Bussiere converted a penalty kick 25 minutes into the first half and the defense again made the goal stand up for a 1-0 victory.
"It was a pretty even match-up," Ducko said. "We had moments of control, however, at any time it really could have gone either way."
But it went the Vikings way, and South Brunswick has a decent GMCT seed because of it.
HANDBALLS: South Brunswick had its Tuesday night game with North Brunswick rained out. The contest will be played Friday. If South beat Edison Wednesday, it clinched a Central Jersey Group IV berth. If it tied Edison, it needs a tie or win Friday for a berth. If it lost to Edison, it must win Friday.

