Knights turned it around in time
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
So much for needing momentum heading into the tournament season.
Three weeks ago, the West Windsor-Plainsboro North boys’ soccer team was about as down as they could get. The Knights had just lost to Trenton, 5-0, completing a final week of the regular season that saw the CVC Valley Division title slip away from them.
Now, three weeks later, the Knights have completely turned around their season and today will travel to Red Bank with a chance to win the Central jersey Group III championship.
”The last week of the regular season we kind of collapsed,” senior Russell Buckley said. “We had a chance to win our division and we went 0-2-1 that last week. The seniors kind of had an unspoken goal that we wanted to get a banner and we didn’t think we had a chance after that last week of the season. But now if we can get one more win, we’ll have a sectional banner.”
The Knights finished the regular season with a 7-6-1 record. Two days after the Trenton loss, they faced the Tornadoes in the opening round of the Mercer County Tournament. They won that game, 4-3, and have been on a roll ever since.
”I think that loss woke us up,” Buckley said. “We have been passing the ball so well. After the Trenton game, we talked as a team and we said we didn’t want to end the season this way. We got together as a team and I think we turned the corner. I thought it was good that we were able to come right back and play Trenton again in our next day and have a chance to redeem ourselves against Trenton.”
The Knights are the last team left playing from the Colonial Valley Conference. They realize there are teams in their conference who had better regular seasons. And they realize they may not have a roster full of the best players in the conference. But when they needed to, the Knights started to play their best soccer and now they’re still playing long after everyone else.
”None of us is amazing, but I think for us the sum of the parts is better than the individuals,” said Buckley, one of six seniors on the North roster. “We played better as a team than we would if we had one person who was just amazing.
”I’m just so excited to be in the sectional finals. The whole school is pretty excited. Teachers and students are congratulating us and we’re getting high fives in the hallways.”
Getting to the finals is something special for the Knights, especially the seniors who have lived through not even making the state tournament the last two years.
Buckley, Evan Mitos, Cameron Musco and Justin Kaminski have all been together in the program since they were freshmen. Alex Wonnell played football for two years before making the switch to soccer last year. Brendan Evans, who has been out with an injury, joined the team as a sophomore after moving into the district.
”We took the lead with about 15 minutes left when Drew (Eccleston) scored that goal,” Buckley said. “Then when he scored again, there was only about a minute left. Cam, Evan and I were standing together at midfield and we realized they weren’t going to score two goals in a minute and we were going to go to the sectional final. This has really validated our season, getting to the final against Red Bank.”
Not only did it validate their season, but the Knights also showed countless other teams out there that it’s never too late to redeem yourself and your season.
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