Nottingham’s Emily Midora led the girl’s attack with three goals over Hamilton West in the final series of the Patriot Games. File Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Oct. 16: They wrapped up the inaugural season of successful Patriot Games at Cowell Field tonight, with Nottingham’s boys’ and girls’ soccer teams sweeping Hamilton West in the final doubleheader between township teams.
And it was a Midura-impacted night in both games as Emily and Matt made their presence felt in big ways.
The Northstar girls improved to 8-6 by taking a 6-0 victory in the opener, while the boys game was a thriller in which the Stars survived, 2-1.
Emily Midura led the girls attack with three goals, while Gia Girman added a goal and two assists to raise her season total to 13 goals and four assists. Giuliana Pocino added a goal and assist while Isabelle Miranda had a goal. Gabi Girman, Ivonne Vasquez and Jayda Driver each notched assists.
Girman set up Midura, who had one goal entering the match, for the game’s first score. Pocino tallied an unassisted goal, and late in the half Nottingham got a back-breaker when Pocino fed Midura to make it 3-0. The Stars built on the lead in the second half to seal their fourth win in five games.
Sara Haas and Madison Colabella combined for five saves in the shutout.
Nottingham (8-6) now gears for a Mercer County Tournament game. The 10th seeded Stars are at 7th-seeded Princeton Thursday. Hamilton (3-12) is 15th seed and travels to No. 2 Pennington.
The boys game went down to the final hectic minute, with standout goalie Patrick Luckie playing out of his mind to preserve the lead and the win.
The scoring was provided by Matt Midura, who tallied the first goal and assisted on the second.
Nottingham took a 1-0 lead when Midura scored off an assists from Hilario Lievano. Hamilton tried to come back shortly after that, but Luckie made saves on two point-blank shots to keep the Stars ahead. With under 10 minutes left in the half, Midura sent a corner kick into the box that Anthony Pacillo scored on to make it 2-0.
Hamilton refused to wither and in the second half Richet Barchue continued his strong season by scoring off a deflection with 11:30 left to pull Hamilton within 2-1. Minutes later, Hamilton had what looked to be the equalizer before Luckie made an incredible save to preserve the win.
The Hornets continued to buzz in the final minutes but Nottingham hung on for its fourth victory. Luckie finished with 15 saves, while Ahmed Taha had eight for the Hornets.
Hamilton (1-12) is right back at it Tuesday when it travels to Ewing for an MCT play-in game. Nottingham (4-9-2) is the 14th seed and visits third-seeded Princeton on Thursday.
Jim “The Voice of Cowell Field” contributed to this story.
Steinert girls stay hot with win over WWPN, boys lose another tight one
The Steinert girls will carry a 10-game winning streak and 12-game unbeaten streak into its MCT opener with West Windsor-Plainsboro South Thursday after defeating WW-P North, 7-0.
Steinert (13-1-1) got a hat trick from Casey Grehan, two goals from Giana “G” Pittaro and one goal apiece from Brielle “Bean” Flodmand and Ashley Navarro. Assists came from Tatiana Dorner, Erika Golik, Michaela Miranda, Lynzie “Lou” Morgan, Navarro, Crysten Wood and Chloe Zoldi.
Golik and Emily Inman split six saves to give the Spartans their 10th shutout. Steinert has not been scored on in non-Cowell Field games since Sep. 13, when it suffered its lone loss to Allentown.
The Spartan boys fell, 2-1, to the Northern Knights. Justin Brunow scored for the second straight game off an assist from Rohan Ming. Goalies Todd Jewell and Tom Kozemchak each had three saves.
Like the girls, the 13th-seeded Spartans face WWPS in a first-round MCT game, although Steinert is on the road against the 4th-seeded Pirates.
