UNBLEMISHED
Pennington girls maintain perfect record with win at PDS
PRINCETON » Kelli Collins admitted she was nervous the first time she stepped on the field with her new girls soccer teammates at the Pennington School.
How would she fit in? What position would she play?
Ten games into an undefeated season, the sophomore has seamlessly transitioned into an important attacking player.
Collins scored twice in the second half to help spark the Red Raiders to a 3-0 victory over prep rival Princeton Day on Thursday afternoon.
“It was hard at first transitioning teams, but I’ve definitely gotten used to it,” said Collins, who impressed at Lawrence High as a freshman. “I was quite nervous because I haven’t moved from a lot of teams. It was a big change, but I eventually knew I would find a spot.”
And what better way to endear yourself to new teammates than score twice against your biggest rival?
“She’s playing amazing,” senior center back Olivia Mahony said. “She’s using her speed to her advantage up top and going after the ball all the time. She has 100 percent workrate and we’re very happy to have her on our team.”
Collins, who can play anywhere across a front three, opened the scoring for the Red Raiders (10-0) two minutes after the restart when she raced behind the defense and neatly rounded the goalkeeper before finishing into an empty net.
She poached her second — a cool first time finish from close range — with 12 minutes remaining to put the cherry on top of a dominating secondhalf performance.
“I’ve never played PDS before, so it was very exciting and I just wanted to win,” Collins said. “They’re a very good team and we knew when we were coming out, we were coming to play a good game. Both teams wanted to win.”
Senior Megan Porras, a Belmont commit, scored in the 47th minute to give Pennington a 2-0 lead.
Those early second-half strikes broke the Panthers’ back after they stubbornly kept the Red Raiders out in the opening 40 minutes.
“The whole entire team we were like, ‘Let’s go down there and get a goal the first five minutes,’” Collins said. “We were just pushing toward the goal trying to get a goal.”
These two sides have built up quite a rivalry over the last handful of years, and PDS knocked Pennington out of the Mercer Country Tournament on penalties in the semifinal a year ago.
That surely was on the mind of the Red Raider players.
“We all wanted to play as hard as we could,” Mahony said. “We were singing in the locker room and actually broke the bus on the way over here. We knew PDS would come out hard, and we were ready to match them.”
PDS (9-5) has dropped two straight. Pat Trombetta’s side, with eight underclassmen in the starting 11, struggled to get anything going and never threatened Mia Justus in the Pennington goal.
Impressive freshman Kylie Daigle assisted on Collins’ opener and would have had one herself if not for two terrific saves by Panthers goalkeeper Riley Felsher.
“They come in with a lot of emotion in a game like this,” Red Raiders co-coach Dr. Bill Hawkey said. “That can work for us or against us, and I think it was a little bit against us in the first half. It was a little too fran- tic and not patient enough. The kids talked to each other at halftime about being patient, holding onto the ball and then finishing.”
Pennington (10-0) PDS (9-5) 0 3 — 3 0 0—0 Goals — Assists —
(TPS).
Shots — Saves —
Collins 2, Porras (TPS). Daigle, McGrath, Balerna 16 (TPS). 2 (PDS). Justus 1 (TPS). Felsher 6 (PDS).