PHS girls soccer advances in CJ III
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Just when it looked like the West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls soccer team might be heading to overtime in its Central Jersey Group IV tournament opener against East Brunswick, the Bears pulled off a last-second goal to end what turned out to be a successful year for the Knights.
”We were down twice and fought back and tied it twice,” said North coach Kevin Mackenzie, whose team finished the season 11-6. “We put ourselves in a position to win the game and I think that says a lot about the character of the girls and their effort.
”I thought we played very well. We were a little shorthanded. Morgan (Hendry) is still not 100 percent and I thought she played a great game. We lost Alex (Hendry) halfway through and that was a tough loss.”
The Knights trailed after an early East Brunwick goal before drawing even when Meghan Wachira scored her 21st goal of the season off a great cross from Elise Gardner. The Bears would score again before halftime for a 2-1 lead, but North evened the score on a goal from Morgan Hendry with 20 minutes left.
A couple of great saves from goalkeeper Claudia Bianchine late in the game kept it tied before the Bears scored with 10 seconds left for the win.
”I thought my goalie played a great game,” Mackenzie said. “She made two great saves at the end of the game. She is only a sophomore and has improved tremendously for us. I am really excited about her future. She has turned into a really good goalkeeper. I have no doubt Claudia is going to continue to improve. We couldn’t be happier about having her for two more years.”
While the season came to an end for the Knights, Princeton advanced in state tournament play. The eighth-seeded Little Tigers posted a 1-0 win over Burlington Township in the opening round of the CJ III tournament Tuesday. Taylor Lis scored with an assist from Devon Lis for the Little Tigers, who received a shutout in goal from Rachel Eberhart. Princeton will play at top-seeded Colts Neck today in the quarterfinals.
”It is exactly what we needed, a tournament win,” Princeton coach Val Rodriguez said. “We had a really tough game against Ewing in the counties that could have gone either way. It was a back to back game after a great win over Hightstown. We had a tough county tournament so it was really great to get a win today.”
WW-P South, the No. 16 seed in CJ IV, dropped a 7-0 decision to top-seeded Hunterdon Central on Tuesday.
For WW-P North, the last-second loss was tough to take but couldn’t put a damper on what turned out to be a successful season.
”We lost to a quality team,” Mackenzie said. “They are in the finals of their county tournament. We had a great year. We were 7-10 last year and we were 11-6 this year. We won our division and both Notre Dame and Princeton were picked to win the division ahead of us.
”I am not sure if people even thought we would be over .500 so I could not be happier about how the season went. We only had two seniors — Taylor Strype and Alex Hendry — and they did a great job. They were great leaders for the team. I think it says a lot about the girls that we could play as well as we did with only two seniors on the team.”