Pennington proves to be too much for Lawrenceville

PENNINGTON>> As far as Griffin Bull is concerned, it will be hard for this year’s Pennington School boys soccer team to be as good as the Red Raiders were when he was a freshman and they won the Mercer County Tournament and made it to the New Jersey Independent Schools Athletic Association Prep A Final.

That was a special team, but so is this season’s squad turning out to be.

Pennington drew closer to completing one of the toughest stretches of its schedule Monday by defeating Prep A rival Lawrenceville, 4-1, in a game which was much closer than the final score indicates for the first 69 minutes.

The Red Raiders have gone 3-1-1 over the last 10 days to establish themselves as a Mercer force with which to be reckoned once again as the 8-1-2 squad heads into a test at 9-1 South Kent (Conn.) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

“I don’t think anything can beat the teams we had in my freshman and sophomore years,” Bull said. “But this team is coming along.”

In Bull’s first two years playing for coach Chad Bridges, his teams went a combined 28-7-4. Then, there was a bump in the road his junior year when Pennington struggled through a 4-12 campaign.

“Coming off last year, we knew we needed to have a good year,” Bull said, “so coach got some guys to help, and we’ve been working hard toward our goal.”

The new blood figured to be especially necessary when the hard-working Bull tore a ligament in his ankle which was supposed to sideline him for six weeks.

“I’ve been training slowly and getting back,” said Bull, whose ankle got better sooner than expected, allowing him to come off the bench for the Red Raiders.

Yesterday his team-first attitude paid off when he scored the first goal of his senior season. The blast from 35 yards out with 11:33 left was the only goal of a tough first half.

“I’m supposed to be a center-midfielder, but, with the injury, I’m more of a utility player right now,” said Bull, who has committed to play at Washington College next season. “I’ll play everywhere and anywhere coach needs me.”

His desire seems to run through his teammates as seen when Pennington extended its lead on a goal by Brazilian newcomer Lucas Freitas 6:47 after halftime.

It was more noticeable when the Big Red cut the lead in half with 16 minutes remaining when Paulius Tolocka took advantage of a failed clear and scored.

“We need to clean up some of our small mistakes and our short passes,” Lawrenceville junior Max Ramsay-Burrough said. “Mostly, we need to come out hard the whole game.”

Like Bull, Ramsay-Burrough has been an all-purpose player for coach Blake Eldridge’s team. That role has moved him to the backfield as players have been injured this season. Yet, it made it no easier to take when Ramsay-Burrough saw the team from his hometown score twice more in the final 11 minutes to dash the Big Red’s hopes.

Freitas scored with 10:55 to go when he re-directed a free kick from Paulo Magalhaes into the net. Then, with 2:35 to play, Tunji Onitiri received a long lead from senior stopper Satchel Cortet and beat the defense with the final goal when he got goalkeeper Phillip Giordano to come off his line.

“They were very well organized and capitalized on our mistakes,” RamsayBurrough said of the Red Raiders. “They caught us pushing up in the second half.”

Bull continued to play when his team needed him despite his injury throughout the second half. He may not have scored again, but he liked what he saw enough to hope he can help lead them back to big things in this, his senior year.

Tolocka (L), Bull, Freitas 2, TOnitiri (P).

DeCoff, Magalhaes, Cortet (P). 7 (L), 11 (P). Giordano 7 (L), Carlson 4 (P).

PDS 1, LAWRENCE 0 PRINCETON >> Luke Franzoni converted a pass from C.J. Uche to get the Panthers past the Cardinals.

Max Adam worked the shutout in net. PEDDIE 2, EPISCOPAL ACADEMY 2 HIGHTSTOWN >> First-half goals by Danny Hallowell and Brendan Mulligan kept the Falcons even with the Churchmen from halftime through two 10-minute overtimes.

Viscusi 2 (EA), Hallowell, Mulligan (P).

Dailey, Ssessanga (P). 9 (EA), 9 (P). Freese 7 (EA), Leahy 7 (P).

BURLINGTON CITY 4, NEW EGYPT 3 BURLINGTON >> Francis Kanu tallied twice and had an assist as the Blue Devils eluded the Warriors.

Andrew Agostinacchio had a goal and an assist for New Egypt.

Agostinacchio, Frazier, Puma (NE), Cakir, Kanu 2, Rush (BC).

Agostinacchio, LaCava (NE), Aguilar, Alvarenga, Kanu, Kinniebrew (BC).

13 (NE), 12 (BC). TBlomgren 8 (NE), Schuck 10