Princeton edges Allentown for road win

ALLENTOWN >> Youri Laou and his teammates on the Princeton High varsity boys soccer team have been through this before.

The Tigers score a goal, then concentrate on playing defense.

It is not how they want to play, but, more often than not, it is a pattern into which they have found themselves falling.

Most of the time, it has worked — like it did Tuesday when Princeton beat Allentown, 1-0, on the road.

Yet, it is a slippery slope as the Tigers found out when they played Trenton last Wednesday and saw the Tornadoes rally for two goals down the stretch to take the victory.

Laou helped head coach Wayne Sutcliffe’s 6-2 team pull out its second straight one-goal victory since that Trenton setback when he scored in the second half Tuesday to break up a scoreless tie.

“Usually I’m up front. This is the first game I was at midfield,” said Laou, a junior. “On the goal, Nick (Petruso) took a heavy touch. When he played it to my feet, I tried to curl it in.”

With the wind in his face, Laou did exactly that and tucked a shot into the far upper-90 of the net 8:30 after intermission.

As exciting as Laou’s scoring his first goal of the season was, he knew there was a lot more work to do, especially considering that the Redbirds had held the majority of the possession throughout the game and were constantly pressuring Princeton’s net.

“That’s how we lost to Trenton,” Laou said. “Games like this make us want to be more aggressive.”

Allentown had no trouble being aggressive. Even before the Tigers scored, head coach Andrew Plunkett’s 4-2 team was getting the better of the chances, but could not put anything behind junior goalie Jared Bell.

“We like to play a high possession game and today we were in their end more often than not,” Redbirds junior Evan Egnatovich said. “It’s a credit to them. They were talented. They have a good defense. They made sure it was conjested in the back.”

Egnatovich tried like crazy to get something going for the home team. Five minutes before Laou scored, Egnatovich had sent a corner kick through the crease past Bell, but no one was able to finish.

After switching sides of the field as the game went on, Egnatovich got a free kick at the top of the box with eight minutes left in the game. His serve dipped on goal and forced Bell to dive across and punch the ball over the goal.

With four minutes to go, Egnatovich took a rip from the far side, and Bell once again had to knock the ball over the goal.

The heart-pounding charges kept coming as senior Matt Lunski headed a ball just over the crossbar from right in front.

“I’m not upset because I thought we played well,” Egnatovich said.

“These were important wins for us (for power points),” said Laou, referring to his team’s wins over West Windsor-Plainsboro North and Allentown since the Trenton loss.

If Princeton can begin scoring a little more and defending a little less, it will help Laou and his teammates breathe a little easier. Princeton (6-2) 0 1 — 1

Allentown (4-2) 0 0 — 0

Goal: Laou (P); Assist: Petrone (P).

Shots: 5 (P), 10 (A); Saves: Bell 8 (P), Parker 4 (A).