Girls Soccer: Wayne Hills Keep Rollin’, Down DePaul, 2-0

Wayne Hills knew what was at stake Tuesday night, and the Patriots certainly played like it. It was a chance for Wayne Hills to “deliver a message to Passaic County,” as coach Greg Rehberger told his team in the pregame huddle, and the Patriots responded with a well-deserved and message-sending 2-0 win over DePaul, cooling off the Spartans, who had become somewhat of the talk of the county after their upset overtime win over Clifton last week.

Most of Wayne Hills was in attendance for that one, getting them even more energized and excited for Tuesday night. After having a goal called back midway through the first half (off a ripped shot from Meghan Griffin), the Patriots seized control of the game in the closing minutes of the half. Sam Rodriguez, who now has seven goals in her last three games, struck first with 2:30 to go, creating a shooting lane in the box with a beautiful move after receiving a pass from Griffin. Just seconds later, freshman Cameron Santers, who entered the game off the bench, knocked one in on a perfectly-executed corner kick from Brooke Adamchak. What was a scoreless game for nearly 40 minutes became a 2-0 game in a matter of about 30 seconds. Santers’ goal was a dagger just before halftime.

For more on the game, click Continue Reading. I wish there was more in the paper, but space is getting tighter and tighter these days.

 

Though they were held scoreless for much of the first half, I thought Hills was outplaying DePaul and had several good scoring opportunities even before striking for the two goals. As usual, Sarah Bendl was in the middle of it all, always making smart decisions with the ball, usually sending it out wide to Haley Savva – one of the fastest players with the ball I’ve seen this year — or to Sabrina Sirni, another dangerous weapon on the outside. Savva had a few nice runs down the sidelines on Tuesday and some good looks at the net. With Bendl, Griffin, Rodriguez, Savva and Sirni, Wayne Hills has plenty of options. Like Rehberger said this preseason, there’s talent all over the field and at every position.

While the back-to-back Wayne Hills goals late in the first half gave the Pats a relatively comfortable lead, I thought the story of the game was the Wayne Hills defense containing DePaul star Melissa Kelly, last week’s overtime hero vs. Clifton. Senior defender and co-captain Sofia Zapata (misspelled twice on Twitter last night, which I’ll be sure to never let happen again) was given the responsibility of marking Kelly up and down the field. At times there was help, from the likes of Adamchak, Brooke Kowalski and Callen Vander May, but for the most part, it was Zapata shadowing Kelly’s every move, in her face at every turn, contesting every possession.

Zapata wasn’t even sure of what formation Wayne Hills would be running Tuesday, or what her responsibilities were going to be until Rehberger informed her that she would, in fact, be marking Kelly during a pregame meeting just hours before gametime. The uncertainty leading up to the game didn’t matter, though, as Zapata and the Hills defense were up to the test, seldom giving Kelly good looks at the net, or even many good runs down the sidelines. Another key was that Wayne Hills played aggressive, but they played smart. DePaul had far less free kick opportunities from the 20-35 yard range, where Kelly and a few other Spartans are dangerous, than it did vs. Clifton.

“She’s really something,” Zapata said after her battle with Kelly. “I give her my full respect. But coach told me what to do, and I was ready to go out there and do what I had to do. This sent a really big message since they beat Clifton last week, so we’re ready to go for the county now.”

And it’s impossible to talk to about the Hills defense without mentioning the performance of goalie Erica Knudsen. She made all the plays that came her way Tuesday, showing no signs that she was in just her third game back after recovering from a knee injury. The most impressive save of the night, and probably the biggest one too, came midway through the second half, with Hills leading 2-0. DePaul drew a penalty in the box, setting the stage for a Kelly penalty kick.

Keep in mind, Kelly’s been labeled as one of the best players in the state (and she is), but on this night, it was Knudsen who won the one-on-one showdown with the Rowan-bound senior. As Kelly tried sneaking a hard grounder to the left side of the net, Knudsen reacted perfectly, leaping to her right and made the athletic, clutch save. Once the rebound was sent out of bounds, Knudsen was actually mobbed by her teammates on the ground. They all knew how big, and impressive, of a save it was.

“Oh my,” Zapata said of Knudsen’s save. “Did you see that save?! That’s all you had to see. That was it. Amazing.”

And if recording a shutout against an in-town rival wasn’t enough, Knudsen’s night was capped by getting asked out once the game went final, too. Pretty sure she said yes. There was an artsy poster board… and flowers, of course. And the guy did it right in front of the entire Wayne Hills team during the team’s postgame cool down. Not surprisingly, they all went crazy. Props to the guy for waiting ’til the game went final, too. A similar thing happened a few years ago (I think it was for prom) during a softball game, but was done in between innings, and it totally rattled the girl, who was the team’s starting pitcher. She ended up giving up a bunch of runs after the interaction. (After some research, I was right… and it even made it all the way to ESPN). But this one was well done. I wonder if he was gonna do it if Hills lost though?

Anyway, so what’s this win mean? Well, 1. It means that Wayne Hills is currently the hottest team in Passaic County with the PCT quarterfinals set to begin next week. The Pats have won five straight since an opening day 2-1 loss to Fair Lawn, and in the two games I’ve seen (vs. Lakeland and at DePaul), they’ve outscored their opponents, 6-0. So now the “Big Game” would be Wayne Hills/Clifton, which I thought was happening Saturday morning, but apparently that’s not the case. I hear those two teams aren’t scheduled to meet until early November, which is after the PCT final date. So, it’s possible the first time Hills and Clifton meet this season would be for the PCT title, assuming both get there.

Speaking of the PCT, it seems to be a wide open tournament this year. Wayne Hills has yet to lose to a Passaic County team this season. Clifton lost to DePaul… DePaul lost to Hills… Lakeland lost to Hills, and that’s the Lancers’ only loss of the year right now. And don’t forget about Wayne Valley, who has lost to Hills and Lakeland, but the Indians shouldn’t be counted out. And then there’s Pompton Lakes at the 5-seed, who, like Hills, hasn’t lost to a Passaic team yet (they’ve lost to Glen Rock and Lodi). The Cardinals score a bunch of goals, though don’t get the same respect as Big North schools because of their competition in the NJIC.

The most interesting potential quarterfinal round game next week would be No. 3 Lakeland vs. No. 6 DePaul, with No. 4 Wayne Valley vs. No. 5 Pompton Lakes being another potentially good one, too. No. 2 Wayne Hills will likely host No. 7 Eastern Christian, who I just saw play on Monday, and they’re 7-1 right now and led by freshman Erin Vander Plaat, who has 17 goals already. So, it’s setting up to be a very interesting tournament.

You know Clifton wants to repeat, and also wants to redeem itself after that loss to DePaul. You know Hills thinks it’s capable of avenging last year’s PCT final loss to the Mustangs after the five-game run it is currently on. There’s Lakeland (shoutout to Danielle Stoll, Bre Renshaw, Annie Yost and Kiley Gormley, who I watched the second half of DP-Hills with on Tuesday… #LLGVS), a team that wants to show its 4-0 loss to the Pats, a few weeks ago was a fluke. They’ll get that chance next week when they host Hills in a regular season game with big league title implications. And then there’s DePaul, who have already shown they can play with, and beat, Clifton.

So there’s plenty of storylines on the horizon. Now the games just have to be played.