Boys edged by South Plainfield
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
UNION — The Princeton High boys soccer team fell one game short of its ultimate goal with a 4-3 loss to South Plainfield in the Group III state final on Sunday.
But along the way the Little Tigers achieved enough of their goals to make this season one of the best in school history.
Princeton won a Mercer County Tournament title, finished with the best record in the Colonial Valley Conference, and won the Central Jersey Group III title during a 19-3-2 season.
”I could not be more proud,” Princeton coach Wayne Sutcliffe said after the game, which was played at Kean University. “They are just fantastic and we had such a young team. The senior class had a lot of adversity for three years and to have three championships is fantastic.
”So many players stepped up due to their hard work and the team just got so much better as the year went on. We just can’t wait until next season. We’re going to be in great shape.”
Princeton fell behind, 1-0, but battled back to take the lead on goals by Dwight Donis and Chase Ealy before South Plainfield evened the score on a goal with just 21 seconds left in the first half.
”I thought the momentum was definitely with us,” Ealy said. “Credit to the guy who hit that shot and they took the momentum right back.”
South Plainfield took a 3-2 lead 10 minutes into the second half when it scored on a rebound of a penalty shot after a fantastic save by Princeton goalkeeper Owen Lindenfelder. The lead was 4-2 before the Little Tigers closed to within 4-3 on a Nick Kapp goal with 21 seconds left.
”I just couldn’t be more proud of our mentality and how we pressed on and our resilience in the game,” Sutcliffe said. “Today just wasn’t our day, but that’s soccer. We thought we were in a good position to go ahead and eventually win it. But all credit to them. We weren’t finding one another quite well enough. They are a good team on the counter and we knew that. They had a good goalkeeper but we still put up three and could have won the game.”
For Ealy and the rest of the seniors, getting to a state final was a great way to close out their careers. For the younger players who will return, it was a great stepping stone toward more success in the future.
”The MCTs, sectionals, all three games against Allentown, we did that with a young team that went as far as we could and nobody expected that,” Ealy said upon reflecting on the season. “I came into a team that was full of legacy and title wins and I always wanted to get back to that my senior year and we did that; we got back here. I would have loved to have won it but we continued the legacy.
”It is fantastic. It gives me so much faith that it is going to continue in future years and this team is going to keep winning. We have a great core of young players.”
And that core should help the Little Tigers continue their success down the road.
”The success of the team this year was beyond some people’s expectations,” Sutcliffe said. “I think that speaks to our quality and our coaching staff with Carlos (Salazar) and Salvi (Baldino) and Ward (Ingersoll) and Brian (Ruddy). We had success at every level and so much to be proud of.”