Underdog Steinert crashes semifinal party

Three of the top four seeded boys soccer teams advanced to the Mercer County Tournament semifinals, which will take place Monday night at Notre Dame High’s Msgr. Walter Nolan Field.

Third-seeded Hopewell Valley (15-3) takes on secondseeded Princeton High (161) at 5 p.m., followed by topseeded, unbeaten, defending champion the Pennington School (13-0-2) against 12thseeded Steinert (7-8-2) at 7:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs defeated Notre Dame, 2-1 in overtime, in the quarterfinals Saturday, while the Little Tigers rolled past West Windsor-Plainsboro North, 6-1, by scoring five times in the second half.

Hopewell, which last advanced to the MCT semifinals in 2011, and Princeton, which won the county title in 2014, met in the first game of the season with coach Wayne Sutcliffe’s squad pulling out a 2-1 win over coach Ed Gola’s team.

The Spartans upset Trenton, 1-0, to return to the MCT semifinals after a year’s absence. Coach Anthony Tessein’s team, which has won three in a row, did not meet coach Chad Bridges’ squad during the regular season.

The Red Raiders slipped past West Windsor-Plainsboro South, 2-1, to return to the semis. Pennington is hoping to become the first team to repeat as MCT champs since Princeton won three in a row from 2007-2009.

Whether or not the tight confines of the ND complex, where boys soccer is not usually played, will have an effect on either game’s outcome remains to be seen.

The hope is it will not as the winners prepare to play the MCT title game on the much more wide-open turf at The College of New Jersey at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.