TORNADOES TRIUMPH
Trenton ousts Lawrence in Mercer County Tournament >>
TRENTON >> Linner Mateo just wants to do what he can to help the Trenton High varsity boys soccer team play as well as it can.
This time of year, that means taking the Tornadoes as far as they can go in the Mercer County Tournament and state tournament.
Mateo turned up his game for that purpose Thursday and help head coach Joe Fink’s club survive a tightly contested opening-round game with Lawrence, 2-0, in MCT action.
The victory sends Trenton (8-7-1) on to play Saturday in the quarterfinals against the winner of last night’s game between 16th-seeded Princeton Day School (5-10) and topseeded Notre Dame High (132).
“I’m the type of player to try to get assists first,” Mateo said. “But today I tried to cut inside, so there would be less pressure on my teammates.”
The senior forward and captain is the perfect runner alongside big scorers Antoneil Barker and Jamie Salmon because of his unselfish play. He and the Fink brothers (Joe and Sid, his coaches) have worked hard to get the rest of the team to buy into that style.
With the Tornadoes and Cardinals battling through 33 minutes of scoreless soccer at the start, Mateo helped change that when he made a slick move from sideline to endline, which freed him to get a blast at Lawrence senior goalkeeper Foster Wakeman.
Wakeman knocked away the shot at the post, but when it was not cleared, Tornadoes sophomore midfielder Adrian Matamoros kicked the ball into the net to give the home team a 1-0 lead with 6:51 left in the first half.
“Our goals were all teamwork,” Mateo said. “We all had opportunities.”
The home team’s hard work seemed to carry over to the visitors in the second half as the Cardinals picked up their game as Wakeman knocked away four shots in the first 13 minutes after intermission.
“On the first goal, the ball was fumbling in the box and mayhem happened,” Lawrence senior back Alex Hatfield said. “In the second half, we picked up our play and were pressuring them. We just couldn’t capitalize on our opportunities.”
Head coach Jeff Molinelli’s team looked like it was going to tie the game with 17:09 left when Joshua Orellana-Paredes ripped a shot which Trenton goalkeeper Emerson Santiago had to tap over the upper-90 of the net.
With the Tornadoes getting a strong game from senior back Ayouba Swaray, especially when the Cardinals pushed senior Ryan Sargent into the attack, Trenton kept Lawrence from getting the equalizer.
Just after Wakeman, Hatfield and the rest of the Cardinals’ backfield had played off three consecutive shots by the Tornadoes, a penalty kick was called with five minutes left as the ball was being cleared. Mateo stepped up to shoot past Wakeman for his team’s second score.
“The last few games have been very difficult, but we’ve kept playing as a family and as a team,” Mateo said.
Santiago came up equally big when Lawrence was awarded a penalty kick of its own with 51.7 seconds left. Cardinals senior Alessandro Medina took the shot, but Trenton’s sophomore goalie jumped on the ball to make the save and preserve the shutout.
Lawrence(5-10-2) 0 0 — 0
Trenton (8-7-1) 1 1 — 2
Goals: Matamoros, LMateo (T); Assist: LMateo (T).
Shots: 6 (L), 11 (T); Saves: Wakeman 8 (L), Santiago 5 (T).