Nottingham Celebrates after scoring the tying goal. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Oct. 18: A tough season just took an upturn for the Nottingham High boys soccer team on Tuesday.
After suffering a 5-0 loss to Hightstown last week, the Northstars won when it counted by taking a 2-1, overtime victory over the Rams in a Mercer County Tournament play-in game. Nottingham got the game-winner on Enrique Jaquez’s golden goal 6:35 into the first overtime.
Next up is a first-round match at 2nd-seeded Princeton for the 15th seeded Stars on Thursday.
“Real nice win for us today,” coach Mike “Bullet Head” Braender said. “Today was Enrique Jaquez’s day.”
Nottingham Greg John looks to move the ball upfield. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick.
Indeed it was, as Jaquez scored the game-tying goal with 18 minutes left in the match after Hightstown took a 1-0 first-half lead. The game winner came when he took a cross from freshman Charles Rosales, got the ball inside the 18 and made a move past a defender before putting it in the back of the net. He did it all while fighting a nagging injury.
It was a day where the Stars (4-10-1) had to show a lot of heart after sweeper Luke Vaughan went down in the first five minutes and did not return.
“We definitely had to go through some adversity,” Braender said.
Sophomore Chi Ezeukwu — who began the season on varsity, was sent down to JV and brought back up last week due to injuries — stepped in for Vaughan “and played pretty much the entire game and logged some good minutes and played pretty well,” according to Braender.
Jason Rodriquez goes up for the headball. Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick
The coach also praised Austin Lloyd, Kevin Mejia, David Rodriguez and Jason Rodriguez (no relation) for stepping up defensively. Freshman goalie Pat Luckie played another strong game and “has been outstanding the past few weeks.”
“We could have hung our heads and had a similar result to last week’s game after that first half, but we really battled back,” Braender said. “We were a different team today, especially in the second half and overtime.”
“We have guys that have been everyday starters all season unable to go today and some young guys stepped in and didn’t just play but contributed. We played with a lot of heart and toughness. It was a team effort and we look forward to trying to leave it all on the field in the next couple weeks in counties and states.”
