Seniors lead WW-PS to derby win over WW-PN
PLAINSBORO >> Like all seniors in a local rivalry, West Windsor-Plainsboro High South senior girls soccer players Samantha Pizzolato and Alice Semov wanted to defeat archrival West WindsorPlainsboro North when they met Wednesday for presumably the final time in their careers.
That’s how high school seniors think.
But, in the case of Pizzolato and Semov, they had not beaten the Northern Knights during the majority of their varsity time with the Pirates. So this last chance had an asterisk attached.
Pizzolato, Semov and their teammates wanted badly to change their luck against their Colonial Valley Conference and crosstown rivals.
So when head coach Chris Trefz’s squad accomplished that on Wednesday night with a 2-1 win over WW-P North, it was exhilarating for all the girls from South, but especially Pizzolato and Semov, who scored the Pirates’ goals.
“It was unreal. We hadn’t beaten them since our freshman year,” Pizzolato said.
The senior midfielder/back moved up on the attack with 25:20 left in the first half as freshman teammate Paige Agnese put a shot on goal. Northern Knights goalkeeper Jasmine Williams tried to knock the ball away from net. Instead, Pizzolato headed it in to give the visitors a lead they would not relinquish.
“I don’t score much, but I told myself I at least want to score in the North/South game,” Pizzolato said. “When the ball I hit went in, I was thinking, ‘Did I actually just score?’ It was great!”
The thrill was matched by some anxious moments in the second half as WW-P North came close to evening the score. On one particular charge, the Knights’ Parvati Casalena got behind the defense, only to have her 1-on-1 chance versus Pirates goalkeeper Jasmine Akman go narrowly wide with 21:55 left.
Semov, a senior midfielder/ forward, gave WW-P South a little more breathing room with 12:27 to go when she tracked down a lead pass from senior leader Amanda Guest before shooting through Williams’ save attempt and into the net for a 2-0 advantage.
Before the Pirates could think about shutting out their foes, WW-P North’s Kaitlyn St. Amour turned a foul call into points. With 4:50 left, St. Amour took a quick restart and kicked it into the corner of the net before Akman could recover.
That made the last few minutes tense once again before Pizzolato, Semov and Co. could exhale.
“South played well,” Northern Knights head coach James Moore said. “They took the game and won it. We didn’t lose it.”
Despite dealing with a lot of injuries, WW-P North was coming off an 8-1win over Trenton Tuesday and was hoping to notch its fourth victory.
Instead, it was WW-P South which was able to gain an emotional fourth win one day after dropping a heart-breaking, 1-0 decision to Lawrence.
“(Tuesday) we played overtime, but lost, so it was nice to come back and get a victory today,” Pizzolato said.
Scoring to get that win over their archrivals made the win all the sweeter for seniors Pizzolato and Semov.
WW-PSouth(4-6-1) 1 1 — 2 WW-PNorth(3-8-1) 0 1 — 1
Goals: Pizzolato, Semov (WWS), St. Amour (WWN); Assists: Agnese, Guest (WWS).
Shots: 10 (WWS), 7 (WWN); Saves: Akman 4 (WWS), Williams 6 (WWN).