Halladay’s move up nets gains for PHS
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Kevin Halliday isn’t your typical high-scoring soccer forward.
Normally a midfielder, the Princeton High junior finished this past season with 23 goals when called upon to fill a role up top for the Little Tigers. But not being a forward by nature, he doesn’t approach goal scoring the same way your typical forward does with an eye toward the goal.
”It is weird because I hadn’t played forward in a long time before this year,” said Halliday, who also had six assists for the Little Tigers. “I went from playing back on my club team to another club team where I played defensive center midfield to high school where I was an outside mid and then to a forward who was somehow scoring goals.
”I think a lot of it is just ending up in the right spot at the right time. There is some skill involved and some luck as well. We’re a possession-oriented team and we’ll move the ball well and it just ends up at my feet and I’ll score.”
Halliday’s play was just one reason the Little Tigers were able to secure the school’s third state championship when they shared this year’s Group III title with Ramapo. Halliday had plenty of big goals through the state tournament.
Halliday scored the first goal of the game just minutes into the contest when Princeton topped Moorestown, 2-0, in the Group III state semifinals. He had two goals in a 4-3 win over Allentown in the Central Jersey Group III final after his overtime goal had lifted the Little Tigers to a win over Middletown South in the sectional semifinals.
”Some guys, you just can’t put a value on what they do,” Princeton coach Wayne Sutcliffe said. “With Kevin it is tangible with all the goals and the game-winners that he had. You are not going to advance unless you have a guy or couple guys that can do that. Kevin had the game-winners and big goals when we needed them.”
Kevin Halliday is the Princeton Packet Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
”I was not at all surprised by what he did this year,” Sutcliffe said. “He has that quality to not only score goals, but game-winners. He is multi-dimensional. During the run of play he is fantastic. He makes great runs and has a nose for the goal. There are not many players who have that. He scored a lot of goals, but we were fortune to have other guys like Zach (Halliday), Aiden (Passannante), Jeremy (Goldsmith), John Blair, Colin Lamb and even Scott (Bechler) as a wide back that could also score.”
But no one scored as many or in as many big spots as Halliday, who adjusted well to his new role with the Little Tigers.
”I play midfield for my club and that is where I have been a majority of my soccer career,” Halliday said. “I started out this season as a center midfielder and made some big run. Coach said I looked dangerous out around the net so he moved me forward and my first game there I scored a goal.”
Sutcliffe was certainly happy to have Halliday anywhere on the field and he was glad to see how well the junior adjusted to his role as a scorer.
”You can’t put a value on what he gave,” Sutcliffe said. “Just like his brother, he is going to keep getting better and better. Some guys around the goal are just assassins or poachers that are one dimensional. Kevin does enough work. He gravitates back to the midfield and breaks up plays. You’ll see him chasing a defender down and combining with other players so often. His ability to be that kind of multi-dimensional player made us better as a team.
”We had some injuries and were missing some guys at different points in the season and Kevin kept the team in a great place. He was a constant. He is a great player but he will be even better. He’ll keep getting better and better.”
For all the individual success he had, nothing means more to Halliday than seeing the team win. He helped the Little Tigers to an 18-3-1 record and sectional and state championships.
”We went into the season with high hopes and goals and then we had a couple losses early,” Halliday said. “That was a wake-up call. We worked hard and went at it and got on a good streak. We had that one loss to Pennington in the Mercer County Tournament and after that we said we had to get it together for the state tournament.”
Halliday felt better about making the change in positions this season because he knew there wouldn’t be a drop-off in play at the midfield. He also knew there was plenty of scoring talent on the team as well.
”There is no drop-off in talent,” Halliday said. “John Blair played defensive center mid and he was fantastic back there. A lot of us would get caught up front and John was always there. And we had a lot of different guys that could score goals with Aiden, Zach, Jeremy and Colin. They all had big goals.”
Halliday also had his share of big goals, which helped set him apart from all the rest.
”I think it comes down to being in the right spot at the right time and having composure to finish,” Halliday said. “Playing for Princeton, we have been in big games before and we had a lot of big games this year. In the states that first 4-3 game (against Jackson Liberty) was a wake-up call. We didn’t play our best. Then we had a couple overtime wins and it was exciting to pull those games out.”
And they pulled them out as a team — with some help from their defender turned midfielder turned high-scoring forward.