Healthy Lawrenceville slips past Hill

LAWRENCEVILLE » Injuries may have kept the seniors on the Lawrenceville School boys soccer team from having the kind of season they wanted this fall, but they were not about to let that spoil their fun.

With everyone healthy enough to play for the second time this year, the Big Red went out and showed what they could do by defeating Hill, 2-1, at Chambers Field in their finale.

In the process, L’ville kept the 11-5 Blues, who entered the game with a 3-1 record in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, from claiming a piece of the title.

“This was the first time since the first game we have had everybody available,” 14th-year head coach Blake Eldridge said after his team finished 3-2 in the MAPL to match Hill and Peddie.

Things may not have come easily for the 5-10-1 Big Red, but they did what they needed to be in position for the upset.

With the game still scoreless and seven minutes remaining in the first half, senior Alex Yang used his left foot to deposit a pass from sophomore Tait Mott inside the near post past Blues starting goalkeeper Chris Kingston to give the home team the lead at the break.

“Because we’d had injuries, in so many games earlier this season, we didn’t click or things didn’t go our way,” Yang said. “In this one, a lot of people stepped up. It all fell together for us on the last day.”

Lawrenceville kept the pressure on at the start of the second half before a handball in the box call awarded the visitors a penalty kick with 32:35 left. Hill senior tri-captain Euan Forrest converted the kick for the only shot to get past Big Red junior goalie Cameron Desnoes all afternoon.

Refusing to let play tilt in the Blues’ favor, L’ville got back on top when senior outside back Abhi Joshi moved into the attack on a free kick and knocked a rebound past Hill’s second ’keeper Matt Wasserman.

“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Joshi said, “but, at the end of the day, if we win the Hill game, the season’s a success.”

Though the Big Red had a chance to extend their lead four minutes after Joshi’s goal when junior Tai Tatum chipped a ball over the crossbar, Hill did its best to even the score down the stretch.

But with Desnoes making six saves, plus the hard work of backfield standouts Kwabena “Koby” Acheampong and Jefferson Mott, Lawrenceville’s seniors were able to end 2017 the way it had begun the last time they were all healthy — with a win.