Hopewell gets big win over Hightstown
HOPEWELL TWP. — Owen Clarke had been working hard at practice so Hopewell Valley boys’ soccer coach Ed Gola decided to reward the junior goalkeeper with his first start.
Clarke ended up with two chipped teeth.
Well, that and an impressive Colonial Valley Conference victory.
Clarke stopped nine shots, Ross Burrows scored a pair of superb goals and Conner Markulec added an insurance tally in the Bulldogs’ 3-1 victory over Hightstown Thursday evening at Ackerson Field.
“We needed to finish in the second half,” Clarke said. “Today we showed that we can play with any team.”
Coming into the contest, Hopewell (7-3) had showed it could compete with the top CVC teams, but wasn’t able to turn that into victories. The Bulldogs have tight losses to West Windsor North, Notre Dame and Allentown on their resume.
That all changed Thursday thanks to Burrows’ two goals — both right-footed curlers from outside the box — and a left-footed blast from Markulec.
“Coach gave me the opportunity to start this year,” said the senior Burrows. “I wasn’t expecting that, so I’m just going to give it my all.”
Burrows gave the Bulldogs a 13th-minute lead, carrying the ball into space 25 yards from goal and lashing a super strike into the top corner.
Clarke kept the Rams (72) off the board with a terrific double-save, first turning away Derick Carpio’s long-range effort then stuffing Garrett Racz on the rebound. Clarke got the worst of the collision with Racz and had to come off for the remainder of the first half and was replaced by Craig Persing.
Hightstown equalized 2:45 after the interval with midfielder Wesley Reyes doing the heavy lifting. Reyes beat his marker on the right-hand side and played a teasing ball into the path of the onrushing Luke Forden. Clarke stopped Forden’s initial attempt, but the senior midfielder was alert to the rebound and poked it into the net.
Hopewell won a penalty in the 49th minute after Markulec was tripped in the box, but Hightstown goalkeeper Jacob Reyes (10 saves) came up with a huge stop, diving to his left to parry away Russell Nicholson’s spot kick.
“I thought momentum would swing after the save,” said Rams coach Tim Kalick. “We go down there and their keeper comes up big. It seemed like he came up big all day for them.”
Burrows grabbed what ended up the game-winner with 16 minutes remaining when he repeated his firsthalf feat, curling a longrange effort past a helpless Reyes.
“I just got an open shot and took it. Nothing to it,” said Burrows, adding that he knew both shots were destined for the top corner.
With 11 minutes left, Markulec put the icing on the cake, smashing a leftfooted drive from 25 yards into the top corner.
“We scored three great goals,” said Hopewell coach Ed Gola. “In the beginning of the season, (Ross) struggled a little bit, but today, he scored two unbelievable goals. And Conner is such a workhorse in the middle. He’s a distributor and today he found an opening and he ripped one.”
Clarke still had a few more saves to make in the final 10 minutes as the Bulldogs secured their biggest win of the season.
“It’s hurting a bit,” Clarke admitted. “I got two chipped teeth. Nothing else is really that bad though.”