Allentown High School’s Morgan Gravatt kicks the ball upfield against Trenton during the Oct. 9 soccer match played on Allentown’s home pitch. The Redbirds won the match big, 8-0. Kali Hartshorn returned to the lineup from a concussion that sidelined her for two weeks and had an immediate impact for Allentown’s girls soccer team, which heads into the biggest week of the season, along with the boys team.
“When I was out for a couple of weeks, that was our biggest week of the season and we won those games,” Hartshorn said. “That’s what we have to do for this week, to come out strong as we have most of the time.”
“It’s the presence she brings to the field. She doesn’t hold anything back,” said Allentown girls soccer coach Kim Maurer of Hartshorn.
Allentown’s girls and boys both are scheduled for big games at Robbinsville on Tuesday and Princeton on Thursday this week. Robbinsville’s girls are 4-6-1 but beat Princeton, 2-1, early in the season. Princeton is 7-3-1.
Robbinsville’s boys are 5-5-2 and Princeton, a perennial opponent of Allentown deep into the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III tournament, is 10-1.
Allentown’s girls are 8-2 while the boys, who are defending NJSIAA Group III cochampions, are 7-1-2. Both Allentown teams easily won their games last week against Trenton on Oct. 9 and against West
Windsor-Plainsboro South on Oct. 7.
Allentown’s girls have never won the
Colonial Valley Conference Freedom Division outright, although they shared the title two years ago with perennial champion Hopewell Valley. Allentown handed
Hopewell Valley its only division loss, 2-
1, earlier this season and can control its own destiny for the championship with a victory over Robbinsvile and a victory over Ewing in the final division game on Oct. 21.
Eight different girls scored in an 8-0 victory over Trenton and Christina Denney and Hartshorn each scored two goals and had an assist in a 7-0 victory over West Windsor- Plainsboro South. Allentown has outscored its opponents, 38-15. Denney leads the way with 10 goals coming into this week and Hartshorn and Veronica Gotilla follow with five each.
“We communicate really well together,” Hartshorn said. “As long as we stick together like we have, we’ll win a lot of games.”
“Robbinsville plays great defense but they don’t score a lot of goals,” Maurer said. “As for Princeton, you don’t know what you’ll get. They lost to West Windsor (Plainsboro) South but this is a big rivalry for us.”
Allentown is the fifth seed in the section for the state tournament coming into this week but winning both games could move it up in the bracket.
Allentown’s boys lost to Hopewell Valley earlier in the season and need to beat Robbinsville to stay alive in the race. Allentown steamrolled by Trenton, 6-1, as Kevin Pereira scored three goals and Will Sjaastad put in two. Nick Eng scored two goals in a 6-0 victory over West Windsor- Plainsboro South on Oct. 7 as Allentown bounced back from a 3-1 loss to Hopewell Valley on Oct. 2.
Allentown has a 30-11 edge in goals scored as Josh Samuels has been steady in goal.
Football
In a battle of unbeaten teams, Allentown was stopped three times on plays from the one-yard line in the closing seconds as it suffered an 18-14 loss to Lenape, a Group V school, in a West Jersey Football League Colonial Division game. Dean Apostolico and Jake Alessi scored in the second quarter on touchdown runs of 10 and three yards, respectively, for Allentown as it took a 14- 12 halftime lead. Cherokee took the lead in the third quarter.
Allentown travels to 2-3 Hightstown on Oct. 17 under the lights.
“The sign of a good team is how they respond after a loss. It will be interesting to see how this team responds,” Allentown coach Jay Graber said. “I think it will respond.”
Graber said the defense played its “best game and as a whole played extremely well.” Linebacker David Krieg made 18 tackles, Ricky Mottram had 15 and Apostolico finished with 14.
“We started the game very sloppy, very slow. We made a ton of mistakes early but the kids showed resilience before coming up short at the end,” Graber said.
The coach said the much larger Lenape enrollment and larger line was not a factor in the frustrating finish. “They’re an excellent team with great speed and are physical up front,” Graber said. “I thought our kids played extremely hard.”
Cross country
Conor Murphy ran 15:55, the best time ever in boys cross country at Allentown, to win the Fall Classic at Thompson Park in Jamesburg. Murphy stayed near the lead and took it with about a half mile left from leader Kyle Mueller of Brick Memorial, who finished eight seconds back in second place.
With a mixture of NJSIAA Group IV and Group III schools, the Group III Redbirds finished an impressive seventh out of 17 teams.
“Breaking 16 minutes has been my goal for a long time,” said Murphy who has made official visits to Rutgers and Monmouth universities. “I’ve been training hard recently preparing for meets late in the season. I wanted to put in a fast time at Thompson Park. We’ve got big meets there, and this has given me confidence. I’ve run good times not just for this meet but for the past three weeks.”
“He’s really something to watch. He just keeps getting better and better,” Allentown coach Brian Harshman said of Murphy. “Every time he’s challenged, he steps up. No question he’s one of the top kids in the state.”
Hunter Mulryne finished 23rd in 17:08, followed by Vincenzo Ferriola (55th in 18:09) and Andrew Fortier (56th in 18:10) in the Fall Classic. Nate Byrnes rounded out the top five with an 80th place finish in 18:36. There were 115 finishers.
“From two weeks ago (the Central Jersey Shootout at Thompson Park), all the kids’ times were substantially lower. I’m definitely pleased. We’re headed in the right direction,” Harshman said.
Allentown, which was 6-3 in dual meets after beating Hamilton West last week, was to compete along with the girls team in the Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division championships on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at Veterans Park in Hamilton. The Mercer County championships will be held the following weekend, Oct. 24, at Thompson Park, moved from Veterans Park.
As for Allentown’s girls, Mimi Crawford ran one of her best races ever at 20:20 for ninth place in the Fall Classic as Allentown’s girls finished fifth out of 13 teams. The girls, enjoying a 7-2 season in dual meets, also got solid finishes from Michelle Foley, who was 25th in 20:58; Jesse Bragger, who was 27th in 21:16; Sara Gutter, who was 35th in 21:38; and Sami Tendler, who was 63rd in 22:52.
Field hockey
Allentown rebounded from a 9-0 loss to Bridgewater Raritan and a tie with Freehold Township to win three games last week to improve to 10-1-1. Melanie Scibilia scored her first goal of the season with 12 minutes left as Allentown on Oct. 6 beat Hopewell Valley, 2-1. Kayla Peterson scored the first goal. She also was one of the scorers in a 3- 0 victory over Robbinsville on Oct. 8. Alex Kinney and Erika McCormick got the other goals, all in the first half. Peterson scored three goals and Colbie Kennedy put in two more in an 8-0 blitz of West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Oct. 10. McCormick, Rachel Dau and Maura McNutt scored the other goals while Emma Timmons recorded her seventh shutout this season. Peterson leads the scoring with 18 goals for Allentown, which played host to West Windsor-Plainsboro North on Oct. 15.