NBC rallies to defeat Lawrence
LAWRENCE>> Every high school soccer team would love to be in the situation the Northern Burlington High varsity boys team is in this season.
Head coach Justin Faust’s squad returns 15 players, eight of whom scored in 2018. Those eight accounted for 33 of the Greyhounds’ 45 goals.
That experience on the attack paid dividends Saturday when Northern rallied to defeat Lawrence, 2-1.
TheCardinals, bycomparison, return 12 players this season, but only four of themscored in 2018, accounting for eight of the team’s 22 goals.
Newvarsity head coach JeffMolinelli is looking formore to score and found one yesterday when senior Joshua Orellana-Paredes uncorked a beautiful shot, which slipped between Greyhounds junior goalkeeper Jacob Hetnick and the far post to give Lawrence the lead just over twominutes after intermission.
“We had a rusty start, but, at halftime, coach gave us a nice speech. Then we came out on the attack in the second half, played better and got more chances in the attacking third,” saidOrellanaParedes, who connected off a lead pass from AlessandroMedina.
It was quite a change from the first half in which Northern Burlington clearly dominated, yet with no goals to show for it.
“They started the second half really strong,” Greyhounds junior forward Austin Lovenduski said of the Cardinals, “but we worked as a team to get back in it. We can score because we work on finishing every day.”
After Northern’s defense, led by junior Jack Burke, held during a 10-minute flurry by Lawrence, which included two more strong charges by sophomore forward JermaineMeisel thatwere turnedaway by Hetnick, the visitors leveled play when junior midfielder Joe Feig headed a corner kick from senior forward Trevor Owens past Cardinals senior goalkeeper FosterWakeman with 24:26 left in the game.
Three-and-a-half minutes later, Austin Lovenduski, whose older brother, Jamie, is a senior backwith theGreyhounds, dribbled past a defender inthemiddleof thefieldand fired a 20-yard shot, which again found the net to put Northern Burlington ahead.
“They were trying to clear, but I won the ball back,” said the younger Lovenduski, who scored seven goals as a sophomore (second most on the team). “I cut inside, but their defensewas swarming, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to takemore touches. I figured I’d take a rip.”
With anexperienced teamwhich knows how to score, sometimes that’s all it takes.
Lawrence’s defense tightened after Lovenduski’s goal. Its offense created a couple opportunities in the final five minutes, yet could not get the equalizer.
“I think we had them the whole second half,” Orellana-Paredes said. “They came up with a couple chances, and they took what they got.”
Going against a team with Northern’s offensive experience, that is going to happen.
Goals: Feig, ALovenduski (NB), Orellana-Paredes (L); Assists: Owens (NB), Medina (L). Shots: 9 (NB), 6 (L); Saves: Hetnick 4 (NB), Wakeman 6 (L).