Results from Monday’s boys and girls action
PLAINSBORO >> When the Hightstown High girls soccer team went up by four goals in the 52nd minute, there was no way Raya Mount thought her team would need to hold on for dear life to pick up three CVC Colonial Division points.
But this is an 80-minute game and West WindsorPlainsboro North wasn’t going down without a fight.
The Knights scored three times in final 8:20 before the clock eventually ran out on what would have been the most improbable comeback of the season and the Rams held on for a 4-3 victory on Monday afternoon.
“We just broke down for a few minutes, but we picked it back up in the end,” said Mount, who scored Hightstown’s third goal in the 24th minute. “We ended up securing the win, which is really all that matters. We were passing around the ball and incorporating everyone (in the first 70 minutes), including our goalkeeper, which I think worked well for us.”
Johaira Perez scored her 10th goal of the season to get the Rams (7-6-1) up and running in the 12th minute then turned provider on Kendra Power’s 20th-minute strike.
Mount made it 3-0 four minutes later and when Liz LeChard scored in the 52nd minute, Hightstown looked on its way to an easy victory until North (5-9) sprung to life in the in final 10 minutes.
The Knights had won five in a row after dropping their first eight against a very tough schedule and nearly pulled out a miracle beginning when Hana Mahmood scored in the 72nd minute following great work from Jillian Pelosi to set her up.
Pelosi continued to push her team forward and slipped in Saachi Mishra to cut the deficit in half 49 seconds later. The senior then set up a grandstand finish when she beat the offside trap, rounded the goalkeeper and walked the ball in for her 17th of the season with 4:13 remaining.
Pelosi has scored 14 of her 17 goals in the last six games. She also hit the post twice with her team trailing 1-0 and again at 3-0.
“We were able to get our chances and once we got our first one, we got some confidence,” said North coach Darron Brown, who was forced to play without two starters when Abby Adams limped off early in the first half. “I think we just ran out of time.”
Hightstown won three of its first four games last season and then didn’t win again until the first round of the state tournament. Mount thinks this group, a year older and wiser, learned from that and that’s why the Rams are sitting one game over .500.
“We wanted to keep our heads up because we started undefeated and then we lost a big game and went downhill from there,” Mount said. “This year we told ourselves, if we get scored on, we have to get back and score more. We’ve kept our heads held high and had a positive attitude throughout the whole game.”
Hightstown also upset Notre Dame on penalty kicks in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament last season and Samantha Biondi’s side will be an underdog this go round against Princeton Day on Thursday. They’ll be a confident one. “We’re confident, we’re stronger physically and we’re moving the ball much better,” Biondi said. “Coming in off a win, we have a little bit more confidence.”
Hightstown (7-6-1) 3 1 - 4 (5-9)03-3
Goals: Perez, Power, Mount, LeChard (H). Mahmood, Mishra, Pelosi (WWN); Assists: Pineda, Perez 2, LeChard (H). Pelosi 2 (WWN); Shots: 19 (H). 13 (WWN); Saves: Fox 5, Lynch 0 (H). Williams 6 (WWN). WW-PN