Leggett’s hat trick leads White over Red in Mooch Game

White was the color of the day Sunday at Rider University’s Ben Cohen soccer field.

Even with the tireless efforts of Rider’s facility workers to clear snow from last week’s storm, there were some tiny patches reminding people of that color.

However, the real reason it was on everyone’s mind was because the White boys and girls soccer teams ruled the day at the annual Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Senior Games, which were graciously moved to the site at the last minute after Al Cowell field in Hamilton’s Veterans Park was deemed unplayable.

The Mooch Senior Games honor the memory of Myernick, who grew up playing soccer in Lawrence and went on to earn national and international fame, before dying suddenly in 2006. This year’s games, which brought together some of Mercer County’s top soccer talent, was also dedicated to the memory of Trentonian sports writer George O’Gorman, who passed away during the summer.

The girls’ and boys’ teams, coached by members of the Mercer County Soccer Hall of Fame, were divided into White and Red squads to commemorate Myernick’s Lawrence school colors.

After the White girls’ team defeated the Red, 4-0, behind a hat trick from Lawrence High’s Sarah Berardi, the White boys’ team won a slugfest from the Red team, 6-4, behind hat tricks by Princeton Day School’s Wesley Leggett and Hightstown High’s Ian Lumkong.

“I looked at this as a great chance to play against all of the people from around the county once more,” said Leggett, who recently completed a 22-goal senior season before heading to the University of Connecticut next fall. “I was just having fun. It was a blast playing with these guys one last time.”

Leggett’s approach was shared by his counterparts on both teams.

With the game tied in the eighth minute after Leggett opened scoring by converting a pass from Steinert’s Max DiPierro at 3:18 and the Hun School’s Elijah Smarr stole the ball in the backfield and scored for the Red team at 7:32, Lumkong broke the game open.

The Hightstown back-turned-forward teamed up with Leggett and Notre Dame’s Brendan Rath for a goal with 27:22 remaining in the first half. Then Lumkong scored again 10 minutes later, this time off a feed from Trenton’s Mario Palacios.

The Red team could have been in a bigger hole at intermission except for a point blank save by Lawrence goalkeeper Ryan Sullivan, who stonewalled Hightstown’s Daniel Tobito two minutes before the break.

Things got more interesting three minutes into the second half when Hopewell Valley’s Eric Goldberg connected on a pass from Allentown’s Connor Maher to pull Red within, 3-2.

“It was a really defensive year in the CVC (Colonial Valley Conference), so this was a bit of a surprise,” Goldberg said. “But everybody was enjoying this type of game and having fun. So I did think we were going to come back.”

After a White goal was disallowed by an offside call, Lumkong stole a ball and scored from 22 yards out to complete his hat trick with 28:14 left and extend White’s lead.

Six minutes later, Leggett found the back of the net a second time, off a pass from Notre Dame’s Kyle Dixon, and the margin grew to 5-2.

With 11:15 to go, momentum changed once again as Princeton’s Sebastian Ratzan scored off a lead from Smarr. Had White second half goalkeeper Sal Rego (PDS) not tapped a blast from West Windsor-Plainsboro High South’s Ryan Grund over the crossbar with 7:20 left, the game could have been tied since Notre Dame’s Sam Griffis turned on a pass from Hopewell’s Luke Tartaglia and dropped it under the bar with 5:32 remaining to tighten the score to 5-4.

A minute later, Leggett completed his hat trick when he took a pass from Tobito and shot past Sullivan for the game’s final goal.

“When you get two, you always want to get one more,” Leggett said.

The Red team could not get the two other goals it wanted down the stretch, leaving this season’s Mooch Senior Games to the teams wearing White.