Raven girls’ soccer squad a perfect 5-0

BY: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
   In a battle of unbeaten or untied CVC powerhouses, the Robbinsville High School girls’ varsity soccer team broke out to a commanding 3-0 lead and then held on to defeat Steinert, 3-2, in last Thursday’s contest played at Robbinsville.
    “It would have been nice to win 3-0 and not 3-2, but when you play a great team like that you have to expect that they are not going to give up and they didn’t. The girls came out pumped up and fired up and it definitely showed having a 3-0 lead at one point,” said Robbinsville head girls’ varsity soccer coach Karen DeRossett.
    Laura Greb was in top form and scored two goals and assisted on another. Gavy Kaplan also knocked in a goal for the winners while teammate Erin Sutphen had an assist in the contest.
    The Spartans actually held a 15 to 10 advantage over the Ravens in the shots on goal dePartment, but Robbinsville goalie Mary Jane Seiler played her heart out and made 13 saves to preserve one of her team’s finest regular season wins ever.
    With the Spartans a storm of offense is always going to eventually come, but the Ravens’ weathered that storm like seasoned veterans and never relinquished their lead.
    After last Thursday’s physical and emotional battle versus the Spartans, it would have beeen very easy for Robbinsville to have had a letdown in last Friday’s rainy home game versus South Brunswick. In fact, the Ravens did get off to a bit of a slow start and fell behind 1-0 early, before they eventually found their groove and used a sensational second half to defeat South Brunswick, 3-1.
    “Playing them (South Brunswick) was tough, but not because of the rain. Anytime you have a great win like we did against Steinert, it’s always tough the next game to come out just as strong. Playing back-to-back games you could see that in our first half against South Brunswick that we were not pumped and fired up. At half time we were able to sit down and talk to the girls about what was happening and fortunately the girls were able to adjust,” said DeRossett, whose team trained very hard this past summer to be flexible enough to change to a better game plan strategy at a moment’s notice.
    “In the second half they came out and dominated in the play. They were hustling more and making better decisions and, most importantly, possessing the ball as a team. Anytime we can do that, we are going to be hard to beat.”
    Seiler posted eight saves in the game. Carina Fleming and Nicole Yap each scored a goal for Robbinsville while Kari Nichels had two assists. Furthermore, the game was yet another showcase for the talents of Kaplan, who netted a goal and assisted on another. With Kaplan constantly putting real pressure on defenses anytime she touches the ball, opposing teams are now often getting burned when they try to double and triple team Greb.
    “I am not surprised at all by Gavy’s play. I think she is a very talented player and have very high expectations for her this season. She is quick and great with the ball and can strike the ball well, exactly what you want from your forwards,” noted DeRossett, who is looking forward to seeing what Kaplan does the remainder of the season.
    On September 23rd, Robbinsville recorded a 3-2 win over a surprisingly tough West Windsor-
Plainsboro North team at Plainsboro.
    “Playing and beating North was a great win. I did not expect them to be as good as they were, in my opinion they were actually a better team than South,” said DeRossett, whose team took advantage of a couple of mistakes by North’s goalie.
    Amanda Douglass already has a strong reputation as a fine defender. On September 23, she showed what she could do offensively by scoring Robbinsville’s only goal of a 1-1 first half.
    “Having Amanda Douglass come up and make a run from the defense started us off with a goal and a great start,” added DeRossett.
    In the second half, however, it was Greb (a goal and an assist) and Nicole Yap (a goal) who actually finished off WW-PN with a pair of excellent offensive plays. Kaplan also had an assist in the game. West Windsor-Plainsboro North took twice as many shots as Robbinsville (12 to 6) but Seiler (10 saves) came up with one huge stop after another. DeRossett was very pleased with her play in goal and the play of her club as a whole.
    “All of our players worked together as a team and that’s what won us the game,” said DeRossett, whose team used great ball movement out of the midfield to set up multiple offensive options on its second-half scores in the North game.
    Robbinsville (5-0) was scheduled to have played a game at Ewing this past Tuesday. Robbinsville is scheduled at Hamilton West today (Thursday). Next Tuesday Robbinsville is scheduled to host Lawrence.