Lawrence gets elusive tourney win
ROBBINSVILLE» For all the improvement the Lawrence High girls soccer team has made the last two years, a tournament win was still eluding it. Not any more.
Katie Ossowski curled home a shot in the 50th minute and the ninth-seeded Cardinals overcame an early deficit to beat eighth-seeded Robbinsville, 2-1, in a first round Mercer County Tournament game on Thursday afternoon.
“I’m so proud of the team and the program,” senior goalkeeper Ally Wakeman said. “It feels awesome to move on for the first time as a team. I’m so proud of the work we put in this season.”
Wakeman, who made three saves while playing the first half, was in goal for a miserable fourwin campaign before the program began to turn around. Lawrence won 12 games last season and has eight victories thus far with a quarterfinal coming up on Saturday at topseeded Allentown.
“As a team, we’ve really started to mold,” said Wakeman, who sat out her junior year with a knee injury. “We kind of see the way we play. It’s great to see everyone come together. Everything we’ve done ... last year with the 12 wins, this year coming out and winning our first MCT game, it’s amazing to see how much a program can change in just a couple of years. I’m so proud to be a part of that.”
Lawrence (8-6-1) had to rally after Robbinsville’s Sydney Flyge chipped in a shot from the center of the box 33 seconds into the contest.
Emily Mihov scored the equalizer in the 10th minute directly from a corner kick.
“It was one of those goals where it was a lucky shot 20 seconds into the game,” Wakeman said. “It’s like, ‘OK, it happened. It’s over, we just got to keep moving on.’”
The Cards got the winner 10 minutes into the second half when Ossowski scored from outside the box.
“I did not think it was going in,” the sophomore said. “I just hoped and prayed that it was going in. I was so ecstatic and happy when I saw it go in. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
The Ravens (7-6-1) pushed for a leveller and Kenzie Martin rolled an effort narrowly wide with 15 minutes to go before Alecia Holden fired high three minutes later.
“It comes down to goal scoring,” Robbinsville coach Caitlyn Curran said. “That’s something we’ve struggled with the whole season. Today kind of proved that was our issue as it has been in games past. It’s something we’re going to working on because now we have a state title to work toward.”
Lawrence, meanwhile, turns its focus to undefeated Allentown.
“We did not play the way we could have against them and (our girls) are aware of that,” coach Emily Palombo said. “They’re excited to be able to see them again. Our philosophy is ‘No Maybes.’ We had a lot of maybes in that game, so we weren’t happy with that. They’re incredible, but anything can happen in the postseason.” NOTE» The semifinals originally scheduled for Monday have been moved to Tuesday. Sites and times remain the same. The girls will play at 5 and 7:30 at Hopewell Valley High.
Lawrence (8-6-1) Robbinsville (7-6-1) Goals — Shots — Saves — 1 1 1 — 0 — 2 1
Mihov, Ossowski (L). Flyge (R). 11 (L). 7 (R). Wakeman 3 (L). Hatfield 0 (L). Hopkins 7 (R).