Hopewell’s Burnett proves tough for Lawrence to match
LAWRENCE » Jared Burnett adds a different dimension to the Hopewell Valley High boys soccer team’s attack.
The 6-foot-3 senior forward give opponents a tough mark with which to match up, while drawing attention away from the Bulldogs’ other scoring threats.
His size also makes him a good target for Hopewell. His determination makes him even more dangerous.
Another thing Lawrence High learned about Burnett Monday is not to upset him.
After getting stonewalled by Cardinals goalkeeper Ryan Sullivan on a breakaway late in the first half, Burnett came out even more fired up after intermission and proceeded to score one more goal and assist on another to lead the Bulldogs to a 3-0 victory in a battle for first place in the Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division.
“After my first miss, I got angry,” Burnett said. “I don’t know what it was about that, but it got me going. I mean their goalie came up with a bunch of good saves, so props to him. I just really wanted to get that goal back.”
Both teams worked hard to try to get on the board first, but Hopewell Valley got a break when Zach Crow was tripped up in the scoring area and a penalty kick was awarded with 9:22 left in the first half. Max Wills converted the p.k. to get the visitors on the board.
“As soon as we got our first goal, we were able to settle into the game more and stop rushing as much,” Burnett said.
That was not an easy task on the Cardinals’ brand new quick turf field. So five minutes later when Burnett got free ahead of the pack, he raced in on Sullivan, only to have the junior ’keeper come out and pounce on the ball before the big attacker could give his team a more comfortable lead.
Just under three minutes after the break, Burnett got even when he took a pass from Ryan Pfau and cranked an angled shot past Sullivan for a 2-0 edge.
“Today we just got outplayed,” Lawrence senior midfielder Kieran Humphreys said. “We got beaten to a lot of balls and didn’t finish our opportunities. plus we left holes in our defense that they took advantage of. (Wills) was running all over the place.”
With Burnett more upset in the second half, that became a bigger problem when Burnett drew the defenders’ attention and centered a pass to Wills for Hopewell’s third goal with 6:19 to play.
It was equally frustrating to Humphreys who had seen one of his shots slam off the post to the right of Bulldogs’ goalkeeper Domenic Zangrilli, only to carom away from the goal with 12:35 left.
“We started to do a little better in the second half, but it was too little, too late,” Humphreys said.
Meanwhile, Burnett just kept charging.
After seeing Sullivan (nine saves) stop another of his blasts with 10:15 to go, Burnett dribbled through three backs with 2:45 left and ripped a shot off the crossbar. Before Sullivan could adjust, the ball rebounded to Burnett, who headed it just wide of the net, leaving him fired up anew for Hopewell’s games with Hamilton and Robbinsville later this week.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals will need to pick up their games during this tough stretch of their schedule as Steinert and WW-P South prepare to visit.
Hopewell Val. (7-2-1) Lawrence (4-3-1) 1 2— 0 0— 3 0
Wills 2, JBurnett (HV). Pfau, JBurnett (HV).
13 (HV), 4 (L). DZangrilli 3 (HV), Sullivan 9 (L).