Raiders win county soccer crown in shootout
By: Bob Nuse
Now, Chris Kingston can think about something else.
It’s been two years since Kingston’s Hun School boys’ soccer team lost to Steinert in overtime in the Mercer County Tournament final. And for two years, Kingston couldn’t forget that loss.
On Friday night, he found a way to start to forget about that game. After 100 minutes of scoreless soccer, Hun went to penalty kicks and topped Notre Dame to capture its first MCT soccer championship.
"I’ve thought about that Steinert game every day of my life since then," Kingston said. "Maybe now I’ll only think about it every week."
Instead of the memory of a tough loss to Steinert, Kingston can think about how well his team played in topping Notre Dame for its first MCT title. The Raiders controlled play for much of the night, then held off a threat by the Irish in overtime before going to penalty kicks. Once there, Hun goalie David Putman made two saves as the Irish went 0-for-3 on kicks. Meanwhile, Hun connected on its three kicks from Steve Giannacio, Matt Florio and Mike Williams.
"We just played smart," said Putman, who has played the second half of the season with a severe shoulder injury. "Our defense played amazing and just backed me up today. We wanted some payback for losing to Steinert two years ago in overtime. We think about that game every day."
In that game two years ago, Hun dominated play for much of the night, then lost when Steinert scored in overtime. This time, the Raiders didn’t let the game slip away at the end.
"Maybe I learned from two years ago," Kingston said. "Because two years ago it felt like we were controlling the play so much, it became frustrating that we weren’t scoring. Tonight it seemed more even and nothing was going to frustrate us. Maybe we all learned from two years ago. We weren’t going to get frustrated whether we scored or not. We were just going to keep knocking.
"I think two years ago we got so frustrated that we couldn’t put the ball in the net. And then Steinert gained confidence from that."
Once Friday’s game went to overtime, the Raiders were quite confident they would prevail. Putman got them off to a great start by saving the first shot of the shootout with a diving save.
"I was just guessing and going by instinct," Putman said. "I went whichever way I thought they were going and I just stuck with it. After the first save the team got pumped up."
Added Kingston: "I’m very confident in Dave. He’s pretty amazing. He’s only been playing goalie for a year. He’s only playing goalie because Kevin Morse tore his ACL last year. If that didn’t happen, Dave Putman wouldn’t be a goalie. He’d be a starting defender for me. But he just has so much natural ability and he has a knack for A, he can guess right, and B, if he does guess right he’s probably going to get a piece of it."
Putman has also been playing with a shoulder injury the last few weeks that has his shoulder in a special brace. He didn’t miss much time after injuring the shoulder in a win over Pennington. He wasn’t about to miss the rest of what is becoming a special season for the Raiders, who improved to 13-1-1 with the MCT win.
"I tore a ligament in it," Putman said. "I wear a brace so it doesn’t hurt anymore. It pops out. I’m getting surgery in the off-season. We have a special team. We believe in each other. We worked hard in pre-season. We were running every day. It just all came together for us. We’ve been facing adversity all year with Matt Sanford out. We got lucky and it all just worked out for us."
Ironically, it wasn’t until the morning of the game that Kingston even realized there would be penalty kicks if the game was still tied after 100 minutes. Two years ago, when the Raiders lost in the closing minutes to Steinert, they would have shared the title.
"It was a very well played game against a very good team," Kingston said. "I personally don’t like the shootout. I would have preferred not to go into a shootout and I can’t say that just because we won, that we should go into a shootout. I think it’s a tough way to lose. Both teams played so well you shouldn’t have to lose that way. But that’s the rule. And I would say it makes the fans happy.
"Heading into the post-season you have to practice it. Ironically, I didn’t practice it yesterday because I actually thought there would not be a shootout today. I read the paper today and saw that the rule was changed. I had not known that."
Kingston, whose team will host Lawrenceville in the state Prep A semifinals on Wednesday, seemed quite relaxed during the shootout period.
"I know at that point that we have done everything we can," he said. "Even if you do lose that way, you know you didn’t really lose. So there is no reason to nervous. But I was enjoying myself because we scored on every single kick."
Kingston was also able to enjoy the return to the field of senior Matt Sanford, who had not played since a season-opening tie against West Windsor-Plainsboro South. Sanford played about half the game on Friday on the forward line, which is a move up from his usual defender role.
"It was a huge emotional lift," Kingston said. "The kids know he’s one of the best players in the area. We were pretty banged up after the Princeton game. I didn’t think Ryan Breen would play today. But I knew that having Matt Sanford, even if he could only play a little bit, maybe it would have the Willis Reed effect, even for 10 minutes.
"I knew it would have an emotional boost. He doesn’t play up top for me, but he wanted to play up top and I thought, hey, all right Matt."
It was just one fact in many that led the Raiders to the title. And also helped give their coach something else to think about.

