By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Madison Coyne feels like the confidence the Princeton Day School girls soccer team gained from its 2-1 win over the Hun School on Tuesday could carry over to the rest of the year.
“With this win I think we can do anything,” said Coyne, a junior center back for the Panthers. “This is one of the toughest games on our schedule and we did amazing.
“Coach (Pat Trombetta) holds us to a high standard and pushes us so hard in practice. It really shows in the games. We won MCTs two years ago and Preps (B) last year. I think he expects us to do well again this year because he is treating us like a championship team.”
In a matchup between last year’s Prep A and Prep B champions, it was the Panthers who came away with the early-season win. The teams were tied, 1-1, at the half on a PDS goal by Allison Klei and a Hun goal by Abbey Gray. It was a second-half goal by Panther newcomer Damali Simon-Ponte that turned out to be the difference in the game, lifting PDS to 1-0-1 while the Raiders fell to 0-1.
“They are very strong,” Coyne said of Hun. “They have a really good striker. We had to work really hard. They had really good outside mids and their target striker was really strong. But honestly, our defense was phenomenal today. Emily (Simons) worked so hard. She was so amazing.
“There are eight freshmen and only one senior. We have a good amount of sophomores and six or seven juniors. The freshmen are so hard working. They came in and just took to everybody. The team chemistry this year is really good as well.”
Coyne has stepped into a new role this season for the Panthers, dropping into the center back position that had previously been handled by Stephanie Soltesz, who is now playing at Gettysburg College. It’s been a smooth transition to the position she already played for her club team.
“I am normally a center back for club,” Coyne said. “I was playing out at wing last year for school. Last year for club I transitioned to be a center back and now this year I am really comfortable. And the people that were next to me just worked so hard and did so well. I was so happy.”
The Panthers had tied George School, 3-3, in their opener but knew they faced a huge test against Hun, which was playing its first game.
“I am very proud of the effort,” Trombetta said. “At this point of the season, to come and play like this is a big step forward for us. The back four has been musical chairs for us. But we’re going to settle on these two center backs now – Madison Coyne and Becca Kuzmich. They did a magnificent job.
“And our left back, Emily Simons, she was (sick) before and after the game and played 80 minutes. She’s never played back there before. She is a little warrior back there. I think things are going to come together for the team.”
For Hun, the opener gave an indication of some of the things that need to be worked on going forward, but the tough opening test was a welcome one.
“It’s disappointing to lose a game like that but at the same time I think they played really well,” Hun coach Joanna Hallac said. “They were doing some nice things and have some good, young players that can finish. It shows us what we need to work on. We’ll try to take a positive approach and just use it as a learning experience and get back the drawing board.
“Although we had three scrimmages, in terms of the competition we didn’t face competition like this. Our last scrimmage was over a week ago. I think we just weren’t game ready and need to up our practices a little to be ready to do everything we need to do to be ready for the game.”
The Raiders have finished the season strong in each of the last two years and will be looking to do the same this year. They reached the Prep A final two years ago and won the title last year.
“I liked a lot of what I saw,” Hallac said. “There are some areas where we can make some improvement but I definitely saw some positives out there that we can take away from today. We’ve got the ability and we’ve got the talent we just need to get clicking on all cylinders. We lost our first game last year and things worked out pretty well.
“It’s hard where you come off a season like they did. We only lost four games last year. You set the bar high and you go into every game expecting to win. We do go into every game expecting to win, but we’re not going to let it define us and bring us down. We’re going to keep focused on our goals.”
