Cougars at on unbeaten Steinert today
By: Justin Feil
Eight to nothing.
The Montgomery High School girls’ soccer team lost to Steinert High by that score in a preseason scrimmage.
The two teams meet again 2 p.m. today at Steinert for the Central Jersey Group IV championship. And while the second-seeded Cougars are definite underdogs against unbeaten and top-seeded Steinert, they don’t put much stake in that August meeting.
"The thing with the scrimmage, it wasn’t just any scrimmage," said MHS head coach Jeremy Beardsley. "It was the first scrimmage, not the second, third or fourth. Things weren’t very established. We’re a completely different team. We have a lot of girls playing different positions. We had a lot of girls (play in the scrimmage) that were young and not ready to play varsity yet.
"I know how good they are based on that game, but it’s hard to compare that game that will be played tomorrow and the game that was played in August. It took me about 25 minutes, but I told the girls, you’re looking at a team going right to Central Jersey Group IV finals."
Montgomery is a little bigger surprise. The Cougars set a new standard for their program last season by sharing the Group III state title. They returned just one senior starter this year, but improved to 19-2 with a 5-4 win over Brick Memorial in Monday’s CJ IV semifinals.
"I don’t think we’ve ever won a 5-4 game in my coaching career," said Beardsley who is in his seventh season. "To score five goals in that tight a game is incredible. It’s been our M.O. to commit to defense. Today, they have a girl that throws the ball 40 yards. We knew it going in the box, we practiced it. They still scored two or three goals off it. It was so difficult to defend it."
Brick used the weapon to put the Cougars at a quick 2-0 disadvantage. MHS, behind three goals from Lauren McClintic, fought back. McClintic tied the game after Carey Youmans scored the first goal for MHS on a breakaway. Marcia Voigt notched the other Cougar goal. McClintic had the third goal and the eventual game-winning fifth goal because Brick scored with seconds left in regulation to make it a one-goal win. McClintic brought her goal total to 20 for the season.
"I’m proud of how resilient my team is," Beardsley said. "To be down, 2-0, and fight back and tie it and get a lead, and they came back and tied it and then we went ahead, I’m so proud of the effort they put out. They’re a young team and they’re playing big and playing tough. We’re getting a lot of effort from a lot of different kids. I’m proud we get to go to the Central Jersey IV final against the best team in the state and see what happens."
Steinert was a 3-0 winner over Middletown South, 2 p.m. Thursday for the sectional championship. Steinert was a big winner when the teams scrimmaged each other in the preseason, but the Cougars have picked up in the regular season from last year’s Group III state championship form.
"Our history the last couple years of winning and being a winning team and winning program certainly factors in," Beardsley said. "There are different girls and different stories every year. We’ve had some injuries. We’ve overcome some injuries. We’ve come back from some real deficits. We came back today from a team that was tough and nasty.
"This is the most wins we’ve ever had," he added. "It’s incredible that we’ve topped last year. We lost six seniors from the team. We only have three seniors this year and one that starts. It’s a tremendous story. I’m so proud of girls."
He’ll be prouder still if Montgomery can pull off the upset of unbeaten Steinert. The preseason look gave the Cougars an idea of Steinert’s strength. Now the teams will square off at the end of the season with everything on the line.
"There’s a long list of challenges," Beardsley said. "The first challenge is dealing with their attack. They have pretty high-powered attack. They’ve outscored opponents, 107-3. They’re outscoring opponents an unbelievable number. Jessica Babice and (Arielle) Collins are top notch. We have to figure a way to slow them.
"Our depth and injuries will play a key role. Maybe people who haven’t been in key roles will have to step up. We lost Bri Miller lost to a concussion. That is an absolutely enormous hole that a bunch of people will have to try to fill. The (Emily) Knesevitch injury still lingers. She hasn’t played since the Somerville game, two days before the county Hillsborough game. Even the girls that are playing, they’re young and playing a lot of minutes so they’re a little worn down. It’s going to be can we rise with the adrenaline and get some play out of the youngsters."
The odds may be stacked against the Cougars, but this is not the first time that they have fought off long odds. They faced doubts in the beginning of the year that they’d ever reach this far. And for the first time in program history, they won the Somerset County Championship when they upset Pingry.
"The thing that I’m kind of talking up and working on with the girls is it’s a similar situation with the Pingry game," Beardsley said. "No one gave us a chance in that game. Pingry was No. 3 in the state and three out of four years, they won the tournament. We came out with that sort of we want to prove people wrong idea. We’re not going to sneak up on anyone, but we can have that us against the world mentality. We’re the only ones that think it’s possible.
"The Steinert situation is similar. Everyone is talking about this team. Steinert has all these seniors. It’s only 80 minutes of soccer. If we can put together 80 minutes of good soccer, we do stand a chance."

