Cardinals snap losing streak

BOYS SOCCER

By Tim Falls, Sports Editor
   Lawrence’s luck has finally changed.
   The Cardinals boys soccer team started the season with five straight losses, but all along insisted they were a better team.
   Lawrence proved that with wins over Trenton on Friday and Robbinsville Tuesday night.
   The Cardinals’ offense seemed to making up for those first five losses with an onslaught of goals against the Ravens.
   Lawrence defeated Trenton, 3-1, on Thursday in the Cardinals’ first victory of the season.
   The Cardinals’ 6-1 win over Robbinsville at Mercer County Community College Stadium Tuesday night really showed off Lawrence’s offensive abilities.
   ”I think we’ve given this effort all season,” said Lawrence coach PJ Barrett. “I think we’ve gotten unlucky. We had a 2-1 loss to Princeton, a 2-0 loss to Notre Dame, a 2-1 loss to Hopewell. This is how we’re able to play. The ball is kind of bouncing our way now, where as it wasn’t before.”
   While Lawrence started the season with a losing streak, the Cardinals were competitive and with a little better luck, many of those loses could have been victories.
   Maciej Kowal tallied twice in Lawrence’s first win. Matt Sciabbarrasi also scored against the Tornadoes. Zach Everson and Paul Grant Jr. offered up assists for the Cardinals.
   ”We’ve got a know formation with three up front now,” said Maciej Kowal. “We should be capitalizing more.”
   Kowal seemed happy with how well the new formation is working. The Lawrence senior, who said it was only his second game playing up front, had a hat trick and two assists for Lawrence in the win over Ravens.
   Kowal’s neon green soccer cleats seemed to glow in a blur as he blew by defenders for two breakaway goals. Alone against the Robbinsville goalie, Kowal remained calm and expertly placed his shots into the net.
   ”You can’t panic,” Kowal said of those situations. “You have to just place the ball in the net.”
   While Lawrence struggled to score in previous games, the Cardinals had no difficulty against the Ravens.
   ”We were just connecting,” said Barrett. “We’ve come out to games and hit the post and have been unlucky like that. Today everything seemed to bounce right.”
   Robbinsville certainly did not have Lawrence’s luck as one of the Raven’s best scoring chances in the game careened off the top post to be cleared away by a Cardinal defender.
   Everson scored and had an assist against the Ravens and said he felt it was about time Lawrence started winning.
   ”It feels great to get these first two wins finally,” said Everson. “We’ve been working hard all season and felt we should have had a couple wins in those first five games. We finally got it done. We finally put the ball in the back of the net.”
   Grant and Jose Martinez each scored once, while Pawel Romanski had two assists and Tom O’Rourke had an assist.
   ”We were capitalizing,” said Everson. “I think we were just unlucky in the first couple of games.”
   Chris Ball got his second win in goal after limiting Robbinsville to one late goal. Ball had 12 saves in the win over Trenton and eight saves against the Ravens.
   Lawrence is scheduled to play Hamiton tomorrow night and Steinert on Tuesday.