No letdown for the champs, as Colonials keep rolling

Freehold Boro girls are 10-0

BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer

Freehold Borough’s girls soccer team has erased any lingering doubts about its hunger to win.

Fresh off a season in which the Colonials were 21-1-1 and captured four championships including the NJSIAA State Group III co-championship, an early-season hangover wouldn’t be all that unexpected. Add to the mix a new head coach and the fact that every team would be out to get them, no one would have been surprised if it took some time for the Colonials to adjust to the new season and the new challenges looming.

But, that hasn’t been the case at all. Freehold Borough has picked up where it left off last November. The Colonials have met and conquered every challenge thus far as their 10-0 record would indicate. They stand on a familiar perch, first place in Shore Conference B North Division.

Alexandra Eagle, the sweeper back who organizes a suffocating defense, thought the Colonials might be a little sluggish in their first few games.

“I was a little nervous that we wouldn’t come out and play like we did last year and be focused,” she pointed out. “We’ve played with intensity. We’ve come out in the first five minutes playing hard.”

“We’ve molded everyone together,” she remarked. “We have great chemistry.”

Head coach Elyse Bizzozzaro noted that collectively, the Colonials have what it takes to avoid the pitfalls that await teams defending titles because all they are concerned about is winning.

“Champions play at one level all the time, no matter who they are playing,” she said. “They [the Colonials] want to win and they work for it. They play hard every game.”

A scored on a through ball from Alexa Rozzi to break the ice with 14:24 left in the first half and made it 2-0 assisted by Jackie Scalgione.

Genna Opatut made it 3-0 early in the second half off a feed from Simone Dixon, and with 10:24 left in the match Mayrose notched her hat trick with a left-footer off another through pass, this one from Opatut.

Mayrose was at it again on Saturday with another hat trick as Freehold handed previously undefeated Holmdel (8-1) its first loss, 4-0.

The 3-2 victory at Wall, coming in overtime, proved that the team had lost none of the extra session magic it had displayed last fall when they were 5-0-1 in overtime matches.

For Wall’s Crimson Knights, the new season looked very much like the old. Last year both matches between these teams went into overtime with the Colonials prevailing each time. That gave the Colonials a big advantage, according to Bizzozzaro.

It was Mayrose who slammed home the overtime game-winner Rozzi and Paige Preston (one of the team’s newcomers) scored the other two goals for Freehold.

Yesterday the Colonials visited Ocean (which lost 2-0 to Freehold last month) and on Tuesday, Freehold will host Wall Township at 3:45 p.m. in the match that should decided the division championship.