By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
All season long, the Princeton High boys’ soccer team has found itself in tight games.
The Little Tigers’ matchup with Pennington in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals on Tuesday might was no exception.
In a battle between last year’s co-champions, Princeton held a Pennington scoreless while it had scored one goal for the slim lead.
Princeton held the lead through most of the second half before Pennington scored with just under six minutes to play. The Red Raiders would score in overtime for the 2-1 victory and a berth in the final, which was scheduled for Thursday night against West Windsor-Plainsboro South.
“It was a great game,” Princeton coach Wayne Sutcliffe said. “I was just so proud. It was fantastic effort and execution and performance.”
Princeton had taken a 1-0 lead in the opening half when a wonderful service into the box by Galil Cohen was turned into a goal by Drew Beamer.
“It was a really well executed set piece,” Sutcliffe said. “Drew found a way to get under it and get enough air on it.”
The lead held up until the 74th minute when Pennington’s Ibrahima Diop scored to tie the game. Princeton had chances to score before and after the goal that tied the game but just couldn’t convert.
“Our response was really good,” said Sutcliffe, whose team fell to 12-4-1. “These are characteristics of a lot of our collective constitutions where we have been on so many battles this year where games have been 1-1 or 1-0. In that respect our response was fantastic.
“We had several nice chances and it would have been over. But that wasn’t the case.”
The Princeton defense was outstanding against a Pennington offense that has scored 15 goals in its first two MCT games.
“The back four were great all night,” Sutcliffe said. “Between Ian (Jacobs) and (Noah) Middlekauff and Thomas Reid and Jun (Hasegawa) and Quentin (Pompliano) in front of them, and (goalkeeper) Patrick (Jacobs), too. They were the men of the match for me. It was just not quite enough to see it off.”
Princeton will play Holmdel on Saturday in its final game of the regular season before the Little Tigers open the state tournament on Tuesday at home against Middletown South.
The Princeton girls’ soccer team fell to Nottingham, 2-1, in the opening round of the MCT. Devon Lis scored the lone goal for the Little Tigers. The Princeton Day School girls topped West Widsor-Plainsboro North, 5-0, in the opening round before falling to Steinert, 1-0, in the quarterfinals. Ariana Jones scored twice in the opening-round win.
The Princeton Day School’s boys’ soccer team topped West Windsor-Plainsboro North, 2-1, in overtime in the opening round. Wesley Leggett scored both goals, including one in overtime, for the Panthers. Princeton Day School fell to top-seeded Hopewell Valley, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.
