BY: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Although the desired final results are not there yet, the Robbinsville High boys’ varsity soccer team’s new system, which is designed to generate more offense, appears to be working.
On Monday at Robbinsville, the Ravens’ midfielders and forwards were pushing the ball up and down the field almost at will, but Penns Grove still managed to “escape” with a 3-2 triumph over Robbinsville.
“We outshot them 24 to 3 and we still lost 3-2,” said Robbinsville head soccer coach Jason Armstrong, who liked most of what he saw on the field other than the final score and a couple of defensive lapses. “We pushed the pace and we were switching our formations throughout the game.”
Penns Grove scored first in the first half, but Robbinsville’s Kevin Bruns smacked in a shot off a Penns Grove defender to knot the score at 1-1 at halftime.
Then during one of its formation changes in the second half, Robbinsville moved its star defender, Doug Cambridge, up to play the forward position. And Cambridge, acting as though he had played there all his life, dribbled the ball down to the box, beat a defender and fired in Robbinsville’s second goal of the game. Unfortunately, Robbinsville fell one goal short in the end. Despite the final score, Robbinsville’s new more aggressive style has a lot of people excited about the team’s future.
“We created a lot of opportunities today (Monday),” Armstrong added.
Last Friday, Notre Dame defeated Robbinsville 4-0 at Robbinsville. The Ravens actually played a terrific defensive first half and went into the half in a 0-0 deadlock. However, in the rain the Ravens were having trouble generating the kind of ball movement they wanted and expected and things got even more frustrating after Notre Dame scored its first goal.
“The weather did play a factor for both teams,” admitted Armstrong. “They put one in early in first minute of the second half and that kind of deflated us.”
Notre Dame ended up outshooting RobBinsville, 15-4. Robbinsville goalie Ryan Boyne made 10 saves to keep it close most of the way.
According to Armstrong his young Ravens are still searching for a team identity. They’ll develop that identity and more self confidence as they start scoring more and more goals and the wins start coming.
Robbinsville (0-2 as of Tuesday morning) was scheduled to have played at Trenton Central on Tuesday. Robbinsville is scheduled at West Windsor-Plainsboro South today (Thursday). Then next Tuesday Robbinsville is scheduled to host West Windsor-Plainsboro North on the turf field.
NEHS
Sam Palumbo’s talented New Egypt High boys’ varsity soccer team lost a 2-0 decision to Palmyra in its season opener at Palmyra last Friday.
Neither team scored in the first half, but Palmyra’s James Citino tallied twice in the second half to lead his club to victory. Warriors goalkeeper Dave Wenskowski made seven saves in the contest. Palmyra recorded 12 shots on goal while New Egypt got off 10 shots.
New Egypt (0-1 as of Tuesday morning) was scheduled to have hosted Trenton Catholic this past Tuesday. New Egypt is scheduled at Burlington City on Friday. New Egypt is scheduled to host Ranney School next Tuesday and Maple Shade next Wednesday.
AHS
Romy Behary, assisted by Brennan Neuberger, scored the goal for the Allentown High boys’ soccer team in a 5-1 loss to West Windsor North. Connor Darrell made eight saves in goal.
Allentown was scheduled to play Steinert this past Tuesday. It will play Ewing at Mercer County Community College tonight (Thursday) at 5:30 p.m. It will play at Princeton Day School Saturday at 2 p.m. Allentown will be home to face Hamilton at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

