WW-PN girls’ soccer falls to state power

Freehold Boro shuts out Knights

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   FREEHOLD — The Freehold Boro girls’ soccer team has made a habit of winning games in the state tournament.
   The two-time defending state Group III champions have not lost a state game since West Windsor-Plainsboro North defeated them in the Central Jersey Group III semifinals in 2005.
   On Friday, the Knights got another shot at the Patriots, but came up short and dropped a 2-0 decision in the CJ III quarterfinals. The current seniors at WW-P North were freshmen on the team that beat Freehold Boro and went on to the CJ III finals three years ago.
   ”I’m proud of the girls,” said WW-P North coach Kevin Mackenzie, whose team finished the season with an 8-9 record. “We played a great game against Red Bank Regional to get here. For the most part we did the things we needed to do today to give ourselves a chance. When you come in and play a team like Freehold Boro who is a two-time defending state champ, they’ve got two big-time Division I players on their team, all you can do is try to keep yourself in the game to give yourself a chance and I think we did that for the most part.
   ”You almost have to play a perfect game. You have to capitalize on your own opportunities and hope that maybe they don’t capitalize on theirs, and they did.”
   The Knights got into an early hole when Freehold Boro scored off a restart just three minutes into the game. The Patriots, who improved to 18-1, added another goal later in the first half.
   ”We stayed in the game,” Mackenzie said. “We just didn’t get that break. If we could have gotten that one goal in the second half, then anything can happen. The backbreaker was the early goal. We came in thinking we couldn’t give up an early goal and we did. I thought overall we actually played a pretty good game. But it was one of those games where you pretty much have to be perfect.”
   Lexi Forsell and Jen Ibanez each made six saves in goal for the Knights, who at one point were 3-6 and needed three wins just before the state cutoff just to make the state tournament.
   ”We struggled at the beginning of the year and had our ups and downs,” said Mackenzie, whose team has qualified for the state tournament each of the last seven years. “Some years things break your way and some years things don’t break your way. Things didn’t break our way early, but I have to give the girls a lot of credit because they never gave up or stopped believing in themselves. They never quit.
   ”We could have easily not even made the state tournament. We came into the last week having to win three games and we won them all, and one was against Notre Dame. The girls responded well.”