Steinert gets win in front of huge crowd

HAMILTON >> Chloe Zoldi spent this week getting nose-to-nose with the two best forwards in the Colonial Valley Conference.

In front of a boisterous crowd at Al Cowell Field at Veterans Park, the Steinert girls soccer team’s senior defender helped blank the league’s top scorer and the Spartans continued their climb up the Valley Division with a 3-0 victory over Nottingham on Friday night.

“This is every high school player’s dream, under the lights on a Friday night,” Zoldi said. “We just wanted to come out with high energy and intensity and I think we really brought it. It’s what we wanted, it’s what we dream for.”

Margarita Ivanova gave Steinert (7-2) a fourth-minute lead, which is where the score stayed until Crysten Wood and Riley Scharko scored in the last 15 minutes for the final margin.

Zoldi, meanwhile, helped spearhead a defensive effort that kept Northstars ace Gia Girman off the scoresheet for the first time this season. Girman came in with a league-high 20 goals, but was mostly isolated up top against three defenders.

“It made me feel really good that they believed in me that I could take them on,” said Zoldi, who also marked Allentown’s Emma Pascarella in a tight 2-1 loss on Monday. “I had my teammates backing me. We just support each other and I knew with them supporting me, I could do it.”

Nottingham (7-3) has dropped two straight, but they were in it until the last 15 minutes and Girman, when she did get a chance to stretch her legs, was as dangerous as ever.

The sophomore won a free kick late in the first half and smacked the ensuing effort off the post for what accounted as the Northstars’ best chance. Nottingham (7-3) 0 0 - 0

Goals: Wood, Ivanova, Scharko (S); Assists: Wood, Ivanova 2 (S); Shots: 15 (S). 9 (N); Saves: Calle 4 (S). Haas 8 (N).