Colts Neck High School’s girls soccer team has arrived at a position every team would like to occupy at this stage of the season. The Cougars control their championship destiny.
Colts Neck is 9-1 overall and on top of the Shore Conference B North Division, with an 8-1 record. The Cougars lead Wall (7-2) by a full game, with three to go.
The Cougars and Crimson Knights split their two division games. Wall handed the Cougars their only loss of the season, 3-2, in double overtime, snapping Colts Neck’s seven-game winning streak. That loss woke up the Cougars, and they rebounded with wins over Red Bank Catholic (1-0) and Neptune (6-0).
“Overall, the season is going very well, except for a poor performance versus Wall, which led to a double-overtime loss,” said Cougar head coach Doug Phillips. “Since then, we have made a few changes in team shape and personnel, which looked very impressive against RBC.
“I would say that our win over RBC had us playing at our best yet this season,” he continued.
That’s a good sign for the Cougars, with the Shore Conference Tournament and state sectionals fast approaching.
Colts Neck’s record belies its youth (one senior and nine sophomores). Phillips said that only in the loss at Wall did the Cougars’ youth come back to bite them in the form of mistakes that led directly to goals.
“The players responded well, and our training sessions have been excellent since that loss,” Phillips noted.
Sophomore Frankie Tagliaferri, a member of the U.S. U-17 National Team that traveled to South Korea at the end of August and early September, gives Colts Neck that dynamic player for whom every team has to game-plan and who also makes everyone else around her better. Her work ethic is contagious.
Tagaliaferri leads the Cougars in scoring, with 12 goals and seven assists. She’s received support from Bridgette King (nine) and Amanda Visco (five), who are formidable scorers themselves.
Alison Russo (five) and King (three) are next behind Tagliaferri in assists.
Keeper Rebecca Eagan has six shutouts.
Colts Neck has looked to and received fine leadership from its lone senior, Erika Keselman, and juniors King, Russo and Visco.
The Cougars’ remaining B North matches were at Red Bank Regional (Oct. 13) and home today against Ocean Township. They beat RBR 8-0 in their first meeting and topped Ocean, 2-1.
The SCT is one title that has eluded the Cougars (two semifinal appearances), who would like to end that drought (16 years) this year.
The SCT begins with first-round games on Oct. 22. The girls final is at Neptune’s Memorial Field on Nov. 1 at 6 p.m.
“Our girls do feel they can play with any team in the Shore,” said Phillips, who added that the Cougars are “humble enough to know that [the SCT title] will not come easy.”
Among the teams that Colts Neck would have to go through are two that are very familiar to the Cougars — Freehold and Freehold Township, which are currently battling it out to see who wins the A North title.