By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
The motivational quotes were flying as Hannah Robertson and the Allentown High School girls soccer team prepared to face Hopewell Valley for the second time.
They weren’t needed.
There was plenty of motivation to be had by the Redbirds, who despite beating Hopewell in the regular season on their way to winning their division for the first time, had received a lower seed than them for the Mercer County Tournament and a lower seed again in the Central Jersey Group III state tournament. And, with just one senior in its starting lineup, sectional title predictions weren’t including Allentown.
”We were pretty motivated,” said Robertson, a junior defender. “I don’t think we’ve beaten them twice in a year.”
Sixth-seeded Allentown proceeded to make a little history with its 1-0 win at third-seeded Hopewell last Friday in the CJ III quarterfinals.
The Allentown win snapped their four-game losing streak at Hopewell’s field and earned them their first trip to a sectional semifinal game. They were scheduled to stay on the road at second-seeded Wall on Tuesday. Wall upset Allentown two years ago in the quarterfinals, and revenge was on the minds of those Redbirds who were a part of that disappointment.
”Christina Denney is senior,” said Allentown head coach Kim Maurer. “Five of the juniors were playing. They remember.”
They won’t forget the way they swept Hopewell this season either. Denney sent a wind-aided howitzer through Hopewell’s goalie off a pass from Alyssa Sloane, and Robertson and the defense helped Ali DeSalvatore pick up her second straight shutout of the state tournament. She made eight saves, but Allentown kept Hopewell from being very dangerous chances.
”It’s a big deal because our defense started out a little rocky in the beginning of the season,” Robertson said. “We used to have a stopper/sweeper and we went to a flat back four. We started working out the kinks with each other and we’re more fluid with each other. It’s a big deal because it proves our defense is playing well.”
The defense from the Redbirds has been a big key to their success. Once they ironed out the back four, they have improved steadily. Freshman Kassidy Mulryne was brought up to play an outside back, Toni Catelli has been solid on the outside and Robertson and Sarah Settlecowski have worked well together since moving inside.
”I play flat back four with my travel team,” Robertson said. “I like it better than stopper/sweeper. I usually play on the inside (for travel), but my coach moves me around a little bit. I can adjust to both of them if I have to.
”When I was on the outside, there were some points in time when I was just watching the play happen because I was on the outside marking my girl,” she said. “Now I feel like I’m always involved in the play. When I was on the outside, I was making more runs and I would try to make more things happen on offense. It was more of a midfield position than defensive perspective.”
Maurer says it took her team several weeks to adjust to the change in formation and the switch in personnel, but it has worked out for their state run.
”Having Hannah and Sarah in the back is great,” Maurer said. “They’re best friends, so they work well together. That was the difference when we moved Hannah to the middle. My right back, Toni, she was a forward last year. It took her some time to adjust. And we brought a freshman up. It took them about a month, but now they finally get it.”
The defense was stingy against Brick in the first round of the state tournament. Allentown won, 1-0, against a different brand of play than they were accustomed to.
”Brick was very physical with us and we’re not used to that,” Maurer said. “I even was asking Alyssa about it because she didn’t look the same, and she said, ‘ felt like I was going to get hit.’ We had four yellow cards, they had one. They were kick-and-run with a freshman and sophomore up top, and they would just hit us every time we had the ball. We hit the cross bar twice so we could have had a couple more.”
Against Hopewell, it wasn’t the physical nature of play that was an issue, but nature itself.
”It was windy,” Robertson said. “It was sleeting at one point. It was really cold rain. We pushed through it.”
Dealing with the weather was secondary to slowing down Hopewell. The Allentown defense did its task better than their first meeting of the season when Allentown had allowed a goal.
”It was similar,” Robertson said. “We knew a lot of their plays because we talked to a lot of other coaches and knew how some of their individual players played and who to mark. The scores were close, but this time we didn’t let up a goal.
”I think the formation definitely has made a big difference,” she added. “We used to play a different formation. This formation is more suited for our players. We have a strong central midfielder. When we push our outside midfielders up top, it made more of an attack, and we’re always talking to each other in the back. It’s non-stop communication.”
Allentown has become more of a cohesive unit in the back, and it has done a good job of assessing any breakdowns and limiting them for the future. The Redbirds have put together a strong finish to their season. They beat Hun in the Mercer County Tournament and have opened the state tournament strong.
”Hun is a very good team,” Maurer said. “I’ve told them, if you come out and play like you did against Hun, Hun beat Pennington, and if you beat them, you can beat anybody. I don’t think Wall knows what we’re like. It’s a 1-2-3-6 seed in the semifinals. They upset us on our turf. Hopefully we can do it on their turf.
”We’ve been an underdog all season,” she added. “We’ve flown under the radar. Being the underdog is OK with us. We did not play well against Brick because we were supposed to win.”
The Redbirds have approached their second half of the season differently. They have seen their potential and have been playing to prove something, as they did against Hopewell.
”We have confidence,” Robertson said. “We knew our team was pretty good and knew we were special with our new formation. Each individual player’s ability, we have some really strong players, and we knew we just had to come together and we’d be able to beat them.”
The Redbirds were protecting against a letdown after their emotional win over Hopewell. Maurer expected her team to remain hungry to continue its state run after knocking out a rival.
”It’s a big deal because we set a lot of firsts,” Robertson said. “We beat Hopewell twice. We’ve lost four times at that field. Last year, we were saying, we need to make it past quarters. Even last year, it was like ‘Next year. . .’ We did it so it proves something. It’s really great.”
