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WEST WINDSOR: North’s youth making gains

Knights soccer tops ND in preparation for counties

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   The roster of the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North boys soccer team is dominated by younger players who are getting acclimated to the varsity level.
   Those players have made an impact so far this season. But last Saturday, it was two of the more experienced Knights that made the biggest play of the game.
   Senior Yaw Owusu-Boahen assisted classmate Jeff Yung on the only goal of the game with less than two minutes left in regulation as the Knights topped Notre Dame, 1-0. It was a win that shows just how far this young team has come since the beginning of the season.
   ”Any time you can beat Notre Dame it is a good win.” North coach Trevor Warner said. “They are 8-5-1 we are 7-5-1, so that was a real good win. We were disappointed when we lost to Lawrence in overtime on Thursday. It was an even game looking at it before hand. It played out close but didn’t put them away and then they scored in overtime. Coming back and beating Notre Dame was a nice step forward for us.”
   WW-P North will get to measure its progress when it begins play in the Mercer County Tournament on Saturday. The eighth-seeded Knights will host Hopewell Valley in the opening round. Princeton is seeded No. 4 and will host Trenton in its opener today. WW-P South is the No. 6 seed and will host 11th-seeded Nottingham on Saturday. Hun, the No. 16 seed, was scheduled to host 17th-seeded Princeton Day School on Thursday with the winner taking on top-seeded Allentown.
   In the MCT girls tournament, Princeton earned the No. 2 seed and will open against 15th-seeded Lawrence. WW-P North is the eighth seed and will host No. 9 Hamilton in the opening round. WW-P South is seeded 12th and plays at No. 5 Hopewell Valley, while PDS is the 13th seed and plays at No. 4 Steinert.
   The championship games in each tournament will be played Oct. 27 at Rider University.
   The WW-P North boys have taken their lumps against some of the better teams in the Colonial Valley Conference, with losses to Princeton, Allentown and Hightstown. But they have held their own with the rest of the league and managed to win the close games. The win on Saturday was their third by one goal and fifth shutout.
   ”With any young team there are going to be ups and downs,” said Warner, whose team lost to Nottingham, 1-0, on Tuesday. “But they are a really very motivated group and very capable at the same time. Our back four is a freshman, two sophomores and a junior. So they are learning on the job. Chris Lai is a sophomore and after about 10 minutes of the game Jake Nerwinski was all over us. I put Chris on him and he did phenomenal job. He really limited his chances. It was also his birthday so it was a good day for him.”
   Freshman Michael Bamford, sophomore Ryan Madsen and junior Griffin O’Brien are also part of the back four that have done a very good job for the Knights this year.
   ”We were taken to task by Princeton and Allentown, but it seems like everybody has been this year,” Warner said. “We lost to Lawrence, 1-0, and lost to Steinert, 1-0, and played very well in the second half of that game. We have been in a lot of real close games. I said to them when we are playing close games this time of year you get used to where everything matters so much more. This is the time of year we’ll be playing in close games, whether it is the Mercer County Tournament or state tournament.”
   The Knights do have a solid group of four seniors they can lean on in the tough times. In addition to Yung and Owusu-Boahen, the other two seniors are Scott Feryus and Marcellino Lobato.
   ”We had Senior Day after the Lawrence game and talked about if we really want to accomplish things and get back to the state tournament our seniors will be the ones who lead us,” Warner said. “Any time you want to win in the postseason, seniors will have to lead you.”