Thomas continues hot stretch as Notre Dame beats R’ville
ROBBINSVILLE >> Eli Thomas considers himself more of a set-up guy for the Notre Dame High varsity boys soccer team, yet he has proven to be an equally good scorer of late for the Irish.
Thomas, who has three goals on the season, has scored all of those in the last four games. His biggest was an overtime winner Saturday which gave ND the Mayor’s Cup with a 2-1 win over crosstown rival Lawrence High.
He had another Monday as head coach Rich Leedom’s team put together a four-goal second half to rally past Robbinsville, 4-2, at the Steven J. Mayer Athletic Complex.
“I think we were still a little overwhelmed from the Lawrence win in the first half today,” said Thomas, a junior midfielder. “Once we put one in in the second half, the momentum changed and we sprouted from that. Everyone started clicking, and we were able to get more goals from there.”
In the wake of the Mayor’s Cup victory, the Irish (10-4) found the themselves watching a beautiful goal 52 seconds into Monday’s contest when Robbinsville senior George Fotiou hooked a corner kick over the heads of about five players and into the far side of the net.
“I curled it in off the corner. I’ve tried to do that a lot, but that’s the first time one has gone in,” Fotiou said. “After that, we had it rolling in the first half. In the second half, I don’t know what happened.”
Head coach Jeff Fisher’s 6-6-2 Ravens kept up their intensity and held the visitors scoreless through the first 40 minutes. R’ville got a little help from the crossbar when Sam Griffis cranked a shot from the top of the box which clanked off the bar and away with 8:50 remaining before intermission.
The shutout lasted 6:52 into the second half before Chris O’Neill tapped a pass from Brendan Rath past Ravens goalkeeper Eric Schreier for the tying tally.
Suddenly, Notre Dame had the confidence it was seeking.
Four minutes later, O’Neill, a transfer student from New Egypt High, kept alive a corner kick by cranking a shot off the post before Griffis redirected the ball past the scrambling defense to give the Irish a 2-1 edge.
Three minutes after that, Thomas pushed in a pass from Griffis to extend the lead.
“I feed the goal scorers,” Thomas said of his role. “I want to set guys up to score goals, but sometimes they find me.”
Thomas got a chance to do that with 13:28 left when his corner kick dropped out of Schreier’s hands and Guilliano Silva kicked in the loose ball.
The Ravens’ problems had gotten worse with 25 minutes left when Fotiou got knocked down on a breakaway and landed on his shoulder, an injury which kept him out the rest of the game.
Sophomore Skyler Frostrom regained some poise for the home team when he headed in a corner from Mathias McLaughlin with 5:42 left, but the comeback ended there as Thomas and Co. held on for their fourth consecutive win.
NotreDame(10-4) 0 4 — 4 Robbinsville(6-6-2) 1 1 — 2 Goals: O’Neill, Griffis, Thomas, Silva (ND), Fotiou, Frostrom (R); Assists: Rath, O’Neill, Griffis, Thomas (ND), McLaughlin (R). Shots: 8 (ND), 6 (R); Saves: Wilke 4, Kuran 0 (ND), Schreier 4 (R).