By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
While everyone has been impressed with the Robbinsville High girls’ varsity field hockey team’s excellent 13-2 start, the Ravens’ extremely tough schedule has managed to keep their special season from ever getting the least bit boring.
This past week alone the Ravens had big showdowns against Allentown and Hopewell Valley, two of the stronger teams in the entire Colonial Valley Conference.
On October 14, Robbinsville nipped Allentown, 2-1, in an overtime game played in Upper Freehold Township. Then last Thursday Robbinsville dropped a 5-4 decision to Hopewell Valley in Pennington. Yet both games only added to the Ravens’ growing reputation as a fantastic, talented field hockey team that never quits.
“Allentown and Hopewell are both very tough teams who are ready to play any day and teams that the girls have been looking forward to (playing) all season long. They’re both a good measuring stick, especially in the same week,” said Robbinsville head varsity field hockey coach Naoma Cordi, whose club’s dream season recently got even better when it earned the first seed in the upcoming Mercer County Tournament.
Robbinsville is scheduled to host Nottingham (16) in the MCT opener this Saturday. The winner of that contest will move on to play the winner of Hamilton (9) and Hun (8) next Monday.
With 64 seconds left in overtime, Robbinsville’s Emilie Taylor fired one of her famous bullets toward the goal cage. The powerful shot ricocheted off Allentown goalie Nikki Barbaree right to Jess Kraemer, who wasted no time shooting in the game-winning goal for the Ravens.
In the first half, Kaitlin Hill, assisted by Taylor Mitchell, had scored to give the Ravens a temporary 1-0 lead, but Allentown’s Shea Clemencich scored late in that same half to tie it up. Robbinsville goalie Kellye Statz enjoyed an excellent game, making nine saves to post the victory. Each team collected 10 shots on goal.
On October 15, the Ravens had a day to savor the win over their local rivals before taking on another powerhouse and Cordi commented, “Coming off an overtime win against Allentown was great for the girls, but we were focusing on the upcoming Hopewell game.”
Against the Bulldogs, after falling behind by three goals at one point (4-1) and trailing 4-1 at the half, the Ravens played a sensational second half and actually tied the game at 4-4 on a Jackie Sikora goal. The Bulldogs’ Cassidy Straniero stroked the game-winner with under five minutes remaining in the contest.
“Of course we were disappointed that we allowed four goals in one half, but what we are more impressed with is the intensity and dedication that allowed us to come from behind and be tied 4-4. It shows a lot of character in the girls not to hang their heads in the second half but to come out on fire and overcome such a big deficit. We would have loved to have seen that fire in the first half as well, but it’s a game we can learn from and take with us in the MCTs and states,” added Cordi.
Christy Wham scored Robbinsville’s first goal and then Taylor put in the next two and recorded an assist too. Hill also had an assist while Statz made four saves in a losing cause. Robbinsville actually outshot Hopewell, 13-9, but a late-
game injury to the extremely versatile Wham probably hurt the Ravens’ chances of coming away with a win.
Those two games were so big, the Ravens’ 3-0 win over a solid Princeton Day School at Robbinsville on Friday was almost an afterthought. Nonetheless, Emilie Taylor scored a pair of goals and assisted on a Sikora’s tally to bring her team-leading total to 16 goals this season. And she’s not even concentrating on scoring this season. Sikora has six goals. Robbinsville took 18 shots while PDS shot eight times on goal. Statz and Becky Homan combined to make five saves for the shutout.
“Last week was a great week of games and coming out 2-1 is fine,” said Cordi, who is looking forward to another excellent week.
In addition to its MCT games, Robbinsville was scheduled to have hosted Lawrenceville this past Tuesday. Robbinsville is scheduled to host Ewing today (Thursday) in its final regular season game.

