Steinert’s Gardiner earns soccer scholarship
The Soccer Referee Association of Central Jersey has announced its scholarship winners for 2021.
Ajah Gilchrist, a threeyear player in the goal for Villa Victoria, is one recipient and the other is Steinert’s Aiden Gardiner.
Villa Victoria plays in the Penn — Jersey League and Gilchrist’s continued growth as player helped Villa to a successful season. She maintained a 3.40 GPA in the classroom.
Gardiner worked diligently in the offseason to improve his game this past fall and it showed as he scored nine goals for the Spartans.
Both scholarship award winners are looking to take their academic and athletic talents to the next level.
The Central Jersey Association is celebrating 60 years of officiating in the Mercer County area.
Mercer Gets Women’s Soccer Honors
Two members of the women’s soccer team at Mercer County Community College have received recognition for excellence on the pitch this fall.
Sophomore Emanuely Dos Santos and freshman Emma Nini were selected for the 2021 NJCAA Women’s Soccer All-Region Team.
Dos Santos, who is known as Manu, is a midfielder who hails from Parana, Brazil.
“Manu is very skillful and can put the ball on her teammate’s foot in stride,” said women’s soccer coach Elyse Diamond, in a release. “She has grown as a player and student-athlete here at Mercer the past three years.”
Dos Santos played in every
game for the Vikings this fall and ranked among the region leaders with 13 goals and 10 assists. Two of her goals were game-winners.
Nini is part of a quartet of Steinert High School graduates who suited up for the Green and Gold.
A versatile player, Nini scored four goals and assisted on four others.
MCCC’s season ended with an 8-3 loss to Sussex County Community College in the Region 19 title game, the third consecutive regional championship for Sussex. The Vikings’ final record was 6-7.
Mercer CYO Basketball Underway
The Mercer County CYO basketball season is underway and Trenton Catholic Preparatory Academy’s Chase Martin is off to a great start.
Playing for TCPA White team, Martin tallied 27 points in a 44-26 win over Our Lady of Sorrows and he followed that up with a 23-point effort in a win over St. Raphael’s Blue in the Boys Varsity Division.
St. Raphael’s bounced back with wins over St. Paul’s White, behind the play of Preston Bahani and against OLS, Joey Riley poured in 19 points for Raphael’s.
TCPA Blue doubled up St. Paul’s Gold, 62-31, as Dylan Napoleon scored 24 points.
Angelo Pesce’s 19 markers
led St. Gregory’s White to a 38-14 win over OLS.
It was a battle of two St. Paul’s teams and it was Ben Okupski netting 25 points as the Gold downed the White, 59-31.
AJ Leberto led the way with 12 points as St. Greg’s defeated OLS, 32-19.
Over in the Girls Varsity Division, it was Ayana Jackson leading the way for St. Raphael’s in a pair of wins over Stuart and St. Paul’s White. Jackson had 16 points in the Stuart win and 13 against St. Paul’s.
Both Stuart and St. Paul’s bounced back with wins. Stuart downed OLS behind Taylor States 21 and St. Paul edged St. Greg’s 15-14 as Maia Davis had nine points.
States continued her terrific play with 18 points as Stuart edged St. Paul’s White.
Princeton Men’s Soccer Player’s Honored
Four Princeton men’s soccer players have added United Soccer All-Region honors to their accolades for 2021.
The four All-Region selections for Princeton match a program record set by the 2001 team.
Senior Kevin O’Toole was named first-team AllNortheast Region, his third career All-Region honor to go alongside second team selections in 2018 and 2019.
He is the first Tiger to earn multiple Ivy League Player of the Year awards in men’s soccer with his second selection as Offensive Player of the Year.
Kevin O’Toole was the fifth men’s soccer player in Ivy League history to earn multiple Player of the Year honors. O’Toole put together a standout senior season where he has set career highs in goals (7), assists (9), points (23), shots (53) and shots on goal (24).
Junior defender Lucas Gen was named secondteam All-Northeast Region, the first such honor of his career.
Lucas Gen has played in all 18 matches this season at center back during a season where he earned his first career All-Ivy selection, keying a defensive group which led the Ivy League in GAA (0.87) and recorded seven shutouts.
Senior defender Alex Charles and junior midfielder Daniel Diaz Bonilla were named third-team AllNortheast Region, each garnering All-Region honors for the first time in their career.