Lady Mustangs scoring more goals

Team still seeking first victory

by John E. Powers, Sports Writer
   Manville High School girls’ soccer team showed in their first two games that improvement has already been made since last season. Now, the Lady Mustangs would like to go beyond the improvement, the morale victory, and get some wins.
   Manville opened its season last week with 6-2 losses to defending Skyland Conference Valley Division champ Mount St. Mary and Valley Division rival North Warren.
   Last season, Manville finished 1-17, scoring just 11 goals, five of which came in a 5-0 win at Dunellen. The Lady Mustangs were shut out 11 times.
   ””We already have as many goals as we did last year,” mused head coach Erin Delaney — who wasn’t too far off.
   The Manville girls also had a lead in their first game.
   Manville, beaten soundly by Mount St. Mary twice last season, had a 1-0 lead on sophomore Sabrina Brozyna’s rebound shot. Mount St. Mary scored three unanswered goals before senior midfielder Angelika Lazur scored off an assist from junior forward Amy Evanylo. Junior keeper Sylwia Pupek made 28 stops.
   ”We were more aggressive,” Delaney said. “It was a little upsetting because we were in the game, but we just got tired.”
   Bridget Gallagher set up four goals and scored two others to lead Mount St. Mary, which opened last season with a 9-0 win over Manville.
   ”Four of their goals were over Sylwia’s head, the other one came when she came out too far and there was another one where we had too many players around,” Delaney said. “Pupek had some phenomenal saves. She made a lot of saves. If she didn’t come out a few times, it would have been worse.”
   Evanylo scored twice against North Warren, which beat Manville 3-1 in last season’s finale.
   ”I really didn’t expect North Warren to be that tough, but they were big and fast,” said Delaney, adding the Patriots beat Bound Brook 7-0 last week.
   Evanylo’s second goal — at 82 minutes in — cut the Patriot lead to 4-2. Freshman Ericka Guevara had an assist on the first tally. Manville had 18 shots on goal.
   ”We were up there making more attempts on offense,” Delaney said. “Amy is looking really good. She looks more confident up top and she feels good about playing. She’s stronger.”
   Pupek was once again busy, stopping 34 shots.
   ”Sylwia watched Lucy (goalie Lucy Yakobchuk, last year’s keeper) and she knows she can’t be hesitate, can’t have fear,” Delaney said.
   Delaney said she may tweak the defensive scheme. She said the defense was beaten on the wings a few times in both games. She attributes part of that to a lack of depth that comes with the territory of being a small school.
   ”All we can do is keep pressing away,” she said. “I can’t be more proud of their effort. They played 80 minutes of non-stop soccer. We were really getting clipped a lot in the game with North Warren, but the kids just kept pressing. I couldn’t ask for a more coachable group of kids.”
   Manville was scheduled to play host to Valley Division rival Belvidere Tuesday before making the trip to Hackettstown Thursday. The girls also play host to Delaware Valley next Tuesday afternoon.