By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High North boys soccer team walked off the field on the wrong end of the score in Monday night’s North Jersey, Section 2 Group III semifinal at Hopewell Valley.
But the Knights also walked off the field knowing their season ended playing their best.
“It’s a much more difficult pill to swallow when you know you didn’t put your best foot forward,” North coach Trevor Warner said after the Knights’ 2-0 loss. “We did. We played extremely well and it just doesn’t go your way sometimes.
“I told the guys after the game I am extremely proud of them. There is one team in Group 3 that gets to celebrate at the end.”
The Knights, who finished the season 13-6-1, went toe-to-toe with the top-seeded Bulldogs most of the night. But Hopewell, which improved to 19-4 and advanced to the sectional final against Middletown North, was opportunistic on a couple of scoring chances and came away with the win.
“They are good,” Warner said. “They’re deep and (Abdullah Afridi) is just a pure goal scorer. He just needs a yard of space.”
Afridi scored in the second half to make it a 2-0 game after Duncan O’Connor had scored in the opening half for the Bulldogs. The Knights had some chances but were not able to score.
“I thought we had a real good, organized attack,” Warner said. “We were passing it around crisply. We just couldn’t penetrate in deep and that really proved to be the X factor. We moved the ball extremely well. We just didn’t crack that final third.”
The loss brings to an end the careers of a senior class that enjoyed a successful run for the Knights.
“All of them, starting with Vincenzo (Pugliese),” Warner said of how much the senior group will be missed. “He’s played since his freshman year and it is going to be hard to not see him around. Bennett (O’Brien) has given so much of himself. Those guys are going to be really hard to replace. So many of the guys have been such an important part of the program. We’ve had great players before and you just have to keep moving on.”
