Pennington wins record fourth straight county title
EWING >> The motto for the 2018 Pennington School varsity boys soccer team should be “Not Enough!”
The Red Raiders wanted badly to win their fourth consecutive Mercer County Tournament title Thursday at The College of New Jersey because three in a row simply tied a record. “Not Enough!” They wanted the record outright.
When head coach Chad Bridges’ second-seeded team opened a onegoal halftime lead on fifth-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro High South, they knew that was “Not Enough!” because the hungry Pirates, who were meeting Pennington in this game for a third time in four years wanted badly to stop that streak.
Even as the Red Raiders ran over to thank their fans after defeating WW-P South, 2-0, to set the MCT record for consecutive crowns, that was “Not Enough!” so they did a seemingly choreographed team dance in front of the crowd to celebrate.
It was quite the night for the Pennington boys, who stuck around afterward to watch the Red Raiders’ girls try to recapture their own MCT trophy and rule the night at TCNJ.
“We’re very excited. We’re making history,” Pennington sophomore Jack Borden said.
Borden, a 6-foot-2 midfielder who has been more used to setting up goals than scoring them this season, put the Red Raiders (12-4) in the driver’s seat when he knocked in a ball sent along by senior teammate Nico Herrerias with 26:15 left in the first half. It was the second goal of the season for Borden, who also has four assists.
“We played it wide, then Nico crossed it,” Borden said. “Somebody deflected it, then I volleyed it into the corner of the net.”
Borden, who has played MatchFit Pennington’s Jack Borden, left, and West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Andy Bea go up for a head ball during Thursday’s MCT final at TCNJ.
with many of the Pirates, knew that his goal was not going to be a backbreaker to them. In fact, WW-P South (12-5-1) came out with more gusto in the second half and had the better of the play for the first 20 minutes.
“We knew we had to play our game, which we did when the second half started,” Pirates junior goalkeeper James Mattson said. “I trust my fullbacks a lot. That team knows how to shoot.”
When the tying goal did not materialize, Pennington got the second strike it needed from a familiar source.
Junior leading scorer Ousmane Gueye received a long ball from senior Timmy Coe and cut to his right before unleashing a nasty shot into the far upper-90 of the net with 19:21 to go.
“No, I did not think one goal was going to be enough,” said Gueye, a native of Senegal who connected
on his 17th goal of the season. “I could see they were tough. If I had a chance (to score), I had to make it.”
Despite 11 saves by Mattson and steady play from fullbacks Andy Bea (sophomore), Zac Chadahumbe and Luke Potts (juniors) and Ganesh Selvanathan (senior), WW-P South could not hold down the Red Raiders. Meanwhile, Pennington backs Coe and Herrerias, Mansour Diop (sophomore) and Lukas Gessner (freshman) limited the Pirates’ chances in front of freshman goalkeeper Rafael de Ponce de Leon.
With only four seniors, many from this young group of Red Raiders will return in 2019 when they are sure to think four MCT titles in a row is “Not Enough!”
WW-PSouth(12-5-1) 0 0 — 0 Pennington (12-4) 1 1 — 2 Goals: Borden, Gueye (P); Assists: Herrerias, Coe (P). Shots: 3 (WWS), 13 (P); Saves: Mattson 11 (WWS), de Ponce de Leon 3 (P).