MHS, PHS open with state victories
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North boys soccer team won enough close games to feel good about their chances in Monday’s Central Jersey Group IV opening round game against Freehold Township.
The Knights were battling through a scoreless tie before Freehold Township’s Jason Czajkowski scored with just over 25 minutes to play. North, the No. 8 seed, was never able to get the goal to draw even and wound up falling, 1-0, to the ninth-seeded Patriots.
”This game was a mirror image of our year,” said North coach Trevor Warner, whose team finished 9-6-2. “We had a lot of close games that were battles until the end. And really, for the most part, we have prevailed in those games. When we lost it was to high quality teams by a pretty good margin. So the 1-0 and 2-1 games we have managed to come out on the right end.”
The Knights played just three games all season where the margin of victory either way was more than two goals. The 1-0 loss was their first of the season by just one goal.
”I thought it was the tale of two halves,” Warner said. “I thought we were the better team in the first half. We hit the crossbar twice. We had a good header down toward the goal line that their ‘keeper made a nice save on. We had some high quality chances. But you have to put them away, especially in the state tournament.”
While the Knights were eliminated from state tournament play, both Montgomery and Princeton advanced with wins as No. 1 seeds Monday. Montgomery topped Trenton, 4-0, in its opener to advance to host Freehold Township in the CJ IV quarterfinals. Joe Morrissey scored twice, while Brandon Sabinsky and Brandon Marna each added goals to back up the shutout goalkeeping of Matt Cabrera, Dan Campo and JC Tapia.
In CJ III, top-seeded Princeton rallied to beat Hamilton West, 2-1. The Little Tigers will host ninth-seeded Hopewell Valley today in the quarterfinals. Alex Ratzan and Chase Ealy each scored goals for Princeton, with Ealy connecting for the game-winner with just under four minutes left to play.
Warner felt like the Knights may have been in a position to win if they could have converted one of their three good chances in the opening half. But without that first-half goal the Knights never got a chance to play with the lead.
”I would like to be in that position to see how it would have turned out,” Warner said. “Vinny (Pugliese) hit a good shot. Bennett (O’Brien) hit a real good shot. Sanka (Sarbadhikary) had a nice header off a ball from the corner. I look at those three guys who had those chances and all three of them are sophomores. I think that really says a lot about where they can help us in the future.”
While Warner would have loved to see his team advance, he came away knowing he and his team had put together a solid season.
”I think we had a really good season,” he said. “We got the most out of our guys. That is not a consolation because we were in a position to win this game. But looking at the core of players that we had as seniors, a lot of those guys played JV last year as juniors. They worked so hard and were unbelievably coachable. I think that is why we did well and were able to host a game in the state tournament for the first time since 2009. I really take my hat off to these kids. They are really a great bunch of kids.
”We have a core coming back. We’ll be losing guys like David Perron, who was solid in the back. And our goalkeeper, Kyle Jacobsen; we could not have had the season we had without him. Chris Lai was a co-captain. Nana (Owusu-Boahen) has been a varsity player since he was a sophomore. With every year you have new faces. You just have to try to plug the pieces in the right place.”