STEVEN BASSIN/STAFF

Bordentown tallies season-high seven goals to roll past Pennsauken

The Bordentown Regional High School boys soccer team is getting back to its winning ways on the pitch.

Following some tough luck in a stretch where they lost four consecutive games, the Scotties have bounced back in its last two contests and improved to 6-6 on the season with a 7-0 victory over Pennsauken on Oct. 4 in Bordentown.

Bordentown saw five different players crack the goal column to tally a season-high seven goals, which is the most goals in a game the Scotties have scored in the last two years.

“Our goal has been to come out and be more attacking oriented instead of easing into the game,” Coach Jason Zablow said after the victory over Pennsauken. “The guys bought into that and did it well today.”

Junior Jay Beyers racked up his second hat trick of the season just 15 minutes into the contest, giving him a team-high 11 goals on the season.

Beyers scored back-to-back goals during the first two minutes of the game to give Bordentown an early 2-0 lead and then tallied home his hat trick following a goal scored by teammate Julien DeLorenzo to put the Scotties up 4-0.

“It felt good to come out early and score three goals,” Beyers said. “Our goal coming in was to score quickly and try to end the game. We’ve dropped a few games with unlucky results, but I think we’re back to a good start from this game.”

Beyers’ 11 goals on the season top his season-high mark last year of 10 goals scored which led the team. This is the third hat trick of Beyers’ career, an achievement that he says means a lot to him and something he wouldn’t be able to accomplish without the support of his teammates over the last few years.

“Sometimes we need a goal scorer and I’ve been that guy,” Beyers said. “The guys help me out a lot. They push me to be the best in practice.”

Bordentown had a five-goal first half as a goal in the 34th minute by senior Mark Holmes gave the Scotties a 5-0 lead going into halftime. The goal was Holmes’ first of the season.

Holmes finished with a game-high two assists in the victory over Pennsauken and now has five total assists this fall to lead the Scotties.

Sophomore Aidan Wall knocked home the sixth Bordentown goal of the afternoon in the 57th minute, intercepting a pass from the Pennsauken goalkeeper and heading the ball into the back of the net for his first-career high school goal.

Teammate Addison Kennedy tallied in the seventh and final Bordentown goal of the day moments later, giving the sophomore a goal and an assist in the victory.

The Scotties will try to continue its offensive surge on Oct. 8 when they face off against undefeated Cinnaminson for the second time this season.

It was back on Set. 22 in Bordentown when the Scotties had a chance to knock off Cinnaminson with the game scoreless going into the last four minutes of the regulation.

Unfortunately for the Scotties, Cinnaminson walked away with a 1-0 victory as Colin Kennville scored the game-winning goal in the 77th minute.

The one-goal loss to Cinnaminson was the second loss for Bordentown during its recent four-game losing streak.

Zablow said his Bordentown squad learned a lot from playing some very good teams during that stretch and will be ready for its second go-around with Cinnaminson.

“We preach all the time that you don’t know when the biggest moment of the game is going to be,” Zablow said. “Hopefully we have the biggest moment in this next game.”

Beating Cinnaminson will keep the Scotties in the running to win their sixth Burlington County Scholastic League (BCSL) Patriot Division championship in the last seven years.

The BCSL did not give out division titles last season due to the pandemic.

Following the Cinnaminson game, Bordentown will host Holy Cross Prep in another huge Patriot Division matchup on Oct. 13.

Holy Cross handed the Scotties a 2-0 loss during their first meeting back on Sept. 24 and are ranked ahead of Bordentown in the division standings. Cinnaminson currently holds the top spot in the Patriot Division.

A tough matchup against Palmyra follows for Bordentown after its second match with Holy Cross.

Zablow and his Scotties would love to be division champs again if things work in their favor, but the team understands that there are bigger goals that lie ahead for them the rest of the way.

Those goals revolve around the sectional playoff tournament and playing well down the stretch to put themselves in a good position for a chance to have a strong postseason run.

“You want to put yourself in the best position seed-wise to make a strong run in the sectional tournament,” Zablow said. “We want to get a high seed and have some home playoff games.”