Move up allows new opportunity
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Yael Yonah made the most of one of her first opportunities on offense. And the West Windsor-Plainsboro South field hockey team reaped the benefits.
”Yael did a very nice job,” WW-P South coach Christine Cabarle said after Yonah’s goal lifted the Pirates to a 1-0 win over Nottingham on Monday. “Before I put her in I told her to score, assist or get a corner and she did. She has been playing defensive midfield and we’ve just recently moved her to high forward. She is very aggressive and really wants it.”
Yonah, a sophomore, hasn’t had many opportunities to score goals for the Pirates. But when she was moved from her defensive midfield position up to a forward role, she answered the call.
”I was really scared but the coaches helped me prepare a lot,” Yonah said. “It was pretty intense. I thought I was doing everything wrong but it turned out that I ended up doing well. I think it was because my team started to cooperate a lot more in the second half.
”That was my first career goal. I was very excited. I was always midfield so I didn’t get to have that many opportunities.”
The win was the second of the season for the Pirates, who played Hightstown to a 1-1 tie on Wednesday and are now 2-9-1 with the Mercer County Tournament on the horizon.
”We’re hoping every week is going to be a turning point,” said Cabarle, whose team is 2-1-1 in its last four games. “We’re just having a tough time connecting. We lost quite a bit of our power players and we’ve had to rebuild that. It does always feel like we’re very close and we just don’t finish. It’s very frustrating.”
The Pirates had been having trouble scoring goals early in the season, but the offense has improved recently with five goals in the last three games. Dana Salerno scored for South in the tie with Hightstown on Wednesday.
”We as a team were accomplishing a lot,” Yonah said after the win on Monday. “When Coach tells us to something we try to implement as much as we can. I know that when she tells me to do something I always try my best to do it.”
Her best on Monday led to her first goal of the season, which came off an assist from Megan Kramer.
”We capitalized on the corner and when I got the ball I smacked it in,” Yonah said. “But I could not have done it without the rest of the team helping me.
”I know we are capable of beating a lot of teams, if we work hard together we’ll accomplish what we want to accomplish and so much more.”