North Brunswick High School will rely on a tight group of players to improve and put an end to a recent losing streak in girl’s soccer.
“I’ve been with these girls for four years,” North Brunswick coach Danielle Bussiere said. “They’re great girls. It’s a great group of girls. They’re all friends. The team camaraderie is awesome. I think that’s going to bring us pretty far.”
North Brunswick bid to snap a three-game skid after the Raiders were defeated by Metuchen High School, 6-1, on Sept. 20 in Metuchen.
“We’ve got a good group of returning varsity players,” Bussiere said. “Twelve of them are seniors. They are connecting well, and they are sending balls through. We have a pretty solid defense. For the most part, it was 2-1, 3-1 [against Metuchen]. That’s a good job on our part. We just have to keep improving.”
Bussiere believes there are some areas where the Raiders can improve.
“We definitely want to improve our finishing,” Bussiere said. “I want to see us connecting a little bit more, and I want to see us communicating on the field. We have to keep our energy up as well.”
The loss to Metuchen dropped North Brunswick to 2-5 this season, but Bussiere is confident the squad can rebound.
“I expect them to do a lot better than last year,” Bussiere said. “We have a better team, a more solid team. We won about five games last year. I hope to win at least eight games this year. I think we can do that with the rest of our schedule coming up.”
Senior center defensive back Christy Perez and senior center midfielder Samantha Persaud remained positive after the setback to Metuchen.
“I think we connected well,” Perez said. “We got the ball wide, and we talked for the most part.”
“We never gave up,” Persaud said. “I know the score wasn’t what we wanted. I felt like the girls put everything out on the field. That’s what we care about most here.”
The players realize what they must accomplish.
“We definitely need to start crashing the net more — scoring more goals and stopping other people from scoring goals as well,” Perez said.
“I think we need to work on playing feet and finding the middle and taking it out wide,” Persaud said. “That way we can get crosses. That’s what we want to do, and that will help us.”
The players share Bussiere’s expectations.
“We want to do better than last year,” Perez said. “That’s really it.”
“We just need to keep our heads up and win more games,” Persaud said. “It’s that simple.”
The Raiders lost at home to Woodbridge High School on Sept. 23, 4-2, and are scheduled to host Sayreville War Memorial High School on Sept. 26.
They also host Perth Amboy High School on Sept. 28 at 4 p.m.