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Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year

Nothing much got past MHS’ Mancino

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Ally Mancino doesn’t remember exactly how young she was when she became a goalkeeper, but she remembers why.
   ”I was the only one who wasn’t afraid to get hit by the ball,” Mancino said. “It kind of stuck with me.”
   Now it only hurts when the soccer ball gets by, which hasn’t happened often under Mancino’s watch over the last four years. When she was a freshman, she earned the starting job in goal for the Montgomery High School girls’ team. That stuck too.
   ”She was a student of mine as a sixth grader,” said MHS head coach Jeremy Beardsley. “I knew this girl lives and breathes soccer. She’s a born goalkeeper. I knew how passionate she was and how much she played. When you do all that and you’re committed, it’s a special thing. You never know if you’re potential is going to be realized, but I certainly knew there was potential.”
   Even Beardsley never expected it to work out this well, for Mancino to be a rock in the net for a program that enjoyed four terrific years, with Mancino’s final season being arguably the best in school history under lesser outside expectations for the team but greater pressure on her.
   ”This year was a huge step for her,” Beardsley said. “Everyone has always talked about the defense in front of her. A lot of credit went to the defense and the system. This year she had a chance to show how big a part of it she was.”
   The Cougars had to replace their entire back three in front of Mancino, but she helped smooth the transition.
   ”Having a completely new three in the back, I had to coax them into getting into it,” Mancino said. “Once they got it, I didn’t have to do anything.”
   Mancino was rarely challenged in some games, but in some of the biggest games like the Somerset County Tournament semifinal against Ridge, she came through with highlight-film saves to keep the Cougars unbeaten.
   For 20 games, MHS remained unblemished. The Cougars won the Skyland Conference Delaware East Division as well as the SCT championship, the first time in one season that they had won two championships. They went 19-0-1 to reach the Central Jersey Group IV final before finally falling. In 21 games, Mancino allowed just six goals. The Connecticut-bound senior enjoyed 15 shutouts this year to raise to 56 her mind-boggling career total.
   Ally Mancino is the Princeton Packet Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year.
   ”Looking back at the whole season, I’m proud of my entire team,” Mancino said. “Because of them, I have all the records I have. The two championships, it’s icing on the top of everything. People were saying, Montgomery, this is going to be their off year. To come out and win two championships, it was awesome.”
   Mancino found new ways to contribute this season. For the first time in her high school career, she took the Cougars’ free kicks — even some on the other side of midfield.
   ”I had fun running up there doing a little offense,” Mancino said. “Freshman year, I could barely do goal kicks. Maureen Chenot had the big kick then, and she took them all. Experience helps out with everything. As you get older, you work on different things.”
   Her footwork improved from being included in all aspects of the Cougars practices. It even paid off for a few fun minutes when Mancino managed to score a goal against Immaculata.
   ”I put her at forward and literally six minutes later, she gets an opportunity and hammers it home,” Beardsley said. “Her feet are fantastic. She is a fantastic field player.”
   But her main role remained in net. She gave the Cougars that safety blanket that meant even if the three-back system broke down now and then, she could bail it out with a big save.
   ”She did such a good job connecting with those three and coming off her line when we needed her to come off her line,” Beardsley said. “And her organizing, so much of that system is designed on positioning. She would help them get in the right position or communicate when to slide over. So much of that was important that people might not notice.”
   If they didn’t notice some of her contributions, it was hard not to hear Mancino, who was vocal on the field even as a freshman keeper. That role expanded this year.
   ”She was vocal off the field,” Beardsley said. “She was motivating girls and getting them going and communicating the expectations. At halftime, she was the one getting the girls going. It’s always been a part of her personality. It was sort of amplified this year.”
   After three years, Mancino made the most of her last chance with the Montgomery girls’ soccer team. She fittingly capped off quite a career with a championship season.
   ”Being my senior year, I wanted to make it my best,” Mancino said. “I wanted to go out strong.”
   The next step is college, where she will join national power UConn. She plans to approach it the same way she came to the MHS program.
   ”My job,” Mancino said, “is to make the team better in any way I can.”
   For four years, Ally Mancino made the Cougars one of the best teams in the state. In her senior year, she helped MHS defy the odds to put together a remarkable season.
   Said Beardsley: “When Ally puts her mind to something, she can just about do what she wants. I am firmly confident that if she gets an opportunity, she’s going to make the most of it.”