Pennington cruises past Steinert for berth in final
LAWRENCE >> It was a look like viewing an FA Cup game between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City’s cast of international super stars.
A scrappy Steinert boys soccer side (7-9-2) did what it could in the semifinals of the Mercer County Tournament Monday night, but it was up against a Pennington squad (14-0-2) that is simply operating on a much higher talent level.
The result was a fairly routine 3-0 Pennington victory on the Notre Dame artificial pitch. The defending champion, Pennington will now take on Princeton in the championship game Thursday night at the College of New Jersey at 7:30 p.m.
“I thought we played pretty well,’’ said Pennington manager Chad Bridges. “We passed the ball around and played a good game. I was impressed by their keeper. He was very good.’’
The Steinert keeper was Todd Jewell, who made a handful of spectacular saves to keep Pennington off the board for much of the first half. Several of those saves were on pointblanks shots that Jewell was able to both stop and deflect away from danger.
But as well as Jewell played it was only a matter of time until Pennington broke through and this came at the 18:55 mark of the first half when Eric Broadway took a wellweighted through pass from Brasil’s Pedro Dolabella and chipped it over the charging Steinert keeper.
It was in the second half where Pennington really took control, starting with a tally by Senegal’s Ibrahima Diop six minutes after the restart.
Dolabella assisted on this one as well as he fed a wideopen Diop just outside the box. Diop did the rest by calmly dribbling around a diving Jewell and sliding it home into a wide open net.
Compared by some to current Sengalese Liverpool striker Sadio Mane, Diop scored the third goal as well into a wide open net with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Pennington keeper Max Pinado was called on to make just one save, but it was a good one on a closein shot by Tristan Spadola late in the second half.
Although Steinert was eliminated, it still enjoyed a strong MCT showing as the No. 12 seed with wins over Robbinsville and Trenton.
As for Pennington, it will now take on Princeton in the game everyone wants to see.
Pennington will also find out today its seeding for the upcoming Prep A class state tournament. Pennington’s two draws were against Peddie and St. Benedict’s, which are also in the prep Class A field.
Garnering the top spot would be huge because the championship game of the state tournament will be played at the highest remaining seed.