Raider soccer reaches state final; Hun girls fall in OT
By: Justin Feil
The Hun School boys will have their shot at No. 1.
The Raider girls just missed.
The Hun boys advanced to Sunday’s 1 p.m. final at top-seeded and unbeaten St. Benedict’s with a 3-1 win over Blair on Wednesday. The Raiders, coming off a Mercer County Tournament championship and loss to Peddie in the regular season Monday, defeated Blair in the regular season, 1-0.
"We did not play very well," said Hun boys’ coach Chris Kingston after his team improved to 14-2-1. "We are tired, injured and probably most importantly, still recovering from the emotional high of the MCT. It is tough to transition from playing under the lights in the county championship on a perfect field with 150 students cheering you on, to playing after a school day on a choppy pitch and only a handful of students stopping by. It almost seems as if the county tournament should be at he very end of the season.
"Having said that, we still scored three goals against a team that we had only scored one goal in the previous 260 minutes. Blair is very organized defensively and has an outstanding goalie. They have only given up one goal in MAPL play (to Hun in overtime) and they shut out Lawrenceville and Mercersburg despite being outshot by a wide margin in both games."
The Hun girls also had success in scoring in their Prep A semifinal at Lawrenceville. The Raiders held a 2-0 lead in the first half before the second-seeded Big Red fought back to force overtime and take a 3-2 win in the second overtime period. Hun had lost, 2-1, the first time the teams met in the regular season.
"We scored two goals in the first half and they scored right before halftime," said Hun coach Ken Stevenson, whose team slipped to 7-5-2 heading into Saturday’s 2:30 game against Hill. "The biggest difference from the first game was we really keyed on playing them. We really focused on playing our game and disrupting their game. We were reasonably successful disrupting their game.
"We got to a point in the first half where we realized we could play with them. Coming off the half leading, 2-1, I felt we had played with them. We felt we could give them a good game or win it. I’m not convinced we thought that way in the first game."
Hun nearly pulled off the upset in the first overtime. Melissa Marino’s blast of a loose ball was saved by Lawrenceville keeper Adelaide Gay.
"Their goalie had easily one of the best saves I’ve ever seen," Stevenson said. "Lindsey (Scott) was down in the box, knocked flat on the ground. Val (Patriarca) came in and got a piece of the ball but basically knocked the goalie down. Melissa comes up and hits a great left-footed volley. The goalie is running with her back to the shot and turns to her left and does a 270-degree spin to catch the ball. It’s one of the best saves I ever saw. We kept pressuring. We created some really good opportunities. It really was anybody’s game to win. We did not feel outplayed."
Saturday will end the careers of a strong group of seniors that Stevenson says will be hard to replace. They set the standard for future teams.
"What’s hard is these seniors helped push the program to higher expectations," Stevenson said. "We’re going to go into next season feeling some of these close games we lost this year, we’ll expect to win next year. I know they’re frustrated, but they helped push the program to be better."
The Hun boys are in the midst of one of the best seasons ever. They already have a MCT title to their credit, and have just two losses. One was a 10-0 defeat at the hands of St. Benedict’s in the regular season. They get another chance as the nation’s consensus top team Sunday.
"Making the state final means we are the best prep team in New Jersey other than St. Benedict’s, and it gives you another shot against them," Kingston said. "The goal is to simply compete as hard as we can. We understand the challenge ahead of us. It’s a monumental task. The goal is for the kids to recognize the value of taking on such a task.
"It’s not about the final score as much as it is how we approach, prepare for and deal with the challenge. And then, if you do everything you can to prepare yourself for the situation, and then you play as hard as you can, good things can happen. You never know. Three years ago, we were down, 2-0, in the second half after not touching the ball all game, and losing 5-0 earlier in the year, and suddenly we controlled the game for 15 minutes and tied them up. I still can’t explain why or how. We just have to take care of ourselves and give it our best shot."
It will require Hun to return to the style that helped it win the MCT. The Raiders started to play that way in the second half against Blair on Wednesday.
"Inserting Matt Sanford wide in the back made a big difference," Kingston said. "He allowed us to possess the ball and switch the fields and he is very good at making runs forward out of the back. He assisted the second goal. Matt Florio played well, and scored two goals as a result. He’s been so solid all year for us and is our best target up top. He showed his versatility by scoring the first goal with his head, beating a defender to the ball, and then calmly tucking the second goal away after he got behind the defense. Jelani Rooks and Ryan Kreger, as usual, did what they always do Jelani getting behind the defense frequently and Ryan playing smart in the back, getting so many plays right."
The Raiders need those sort of plays from everyone on Sunday as they look to top No. 1 to finish their season.

