Nottingham’s Gia Girman drills a shot. She scored the winning goal during overtime in the MCT soccer game against Princeton. File Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Oct. 19: History repeats itself for the Nottingham High girls’ soccer team every five years or so.
Well, in this case, take out the “or so.”
For the first time in exactly five years, the 10th-seeded Northstars won a Mercer County Tournament first-round game, taking a 2-1 overtime victory at 7th-seeded Princeton today. It was Nottingham’s first MCT preliminary round success since beating Notre Dame, 3-2, on Oct. 19, 2012 (although the Stars did win a play-in game against Trenton two years ago).
“It means so much to get this MCT win for our girls and for the program,” coach Christie “Fish” Fink said. “I’m so excited for them and so excited to continue on in the tournament.”
Gia Girman, the freshman who plays like a senior when it comes to scoring goals, did it under pressure in this one as she slotted the golden goal with 30 seconds left in the first overtime. That gave Nottingham (9-6) a trip to 2nd-seeded Pennington Saturday.
A happy band of Northstars reached the MCT quarterfinals after taking a 2-1 overtime victory at Princeton today (Photo courtesy Cynthia Fowler’s twitter page)
The game was scoreless for the first 65 minutes until Devon Lis scored for the Little Tigers. A goal that late in the game can usually deflate the opponent, but the Northstars rallied behind Ivonne Vasquez’s clutch goal.
“We pushed Ivonne up front and she scored a beautiful goal in the upper 90 with eight minutes left,” Fink said.
Sara Haas made 10 saves for Nottingham, who were outshot 11-5. Girman collected her 14th goal, while Vasquez netted her fourth.
Fink, who should be getting big-time consideration for Coach of the Year by somebody, may have been part of Mercer County history today. With her father, Joe, the Trenton High coach, winning on penalty kicks it may be the first time in county history a father and daughter coached winning MCT teams on the same day.
“I don’t know about that,” Joe said, adding with a laugh, “but it’s gotta be the first time both did it in overtime.”
Pittaro strikes for four as Steinert has little trouble with WW-P South
Red-hot Giana “G” Pittaro tallied four goals to power 3rd-seeded Steinert to a 6-1 win over 14th-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro South. The Spartans will host 6th-seeded Princeton Day Saturday.
Pittaro has 16 goals on the season, with nine of them coming in Steinert’s last three victories. Brielle “Bean” Flodmand added two goals and an assist, while Lynzie “Lou” Morgan had two assists and Riley Scharko and Tatiana Dorner had one apiece.
Erika Golik and Emily Inman each had four saves in goal.
Goals tough to come by as all three boys teams and Hamilton girls are ousted
In the final girls’ game, Hamilton West fell to Pennington, 8-0, while all three boys teams were eliminated.
Hamilton lost at Hopewell, 3-0, while Nottingham fell at Princeton, 4-0. Steinert spotted WW-P South a 4-0 lead before making interesting, as Adrian Strawinski and Justin Brunow scored within two minutes of each other with 19 minutes remaining. The Pirates held on, however, to claim a 4-2 win.
