Hightstown holds off Peddie
HIGHTSTOWN >> Heading into their crosstown rivalry Saturday, the Hightstown High and Peddie School varsity boys soccer teams each had three wins.
The road to those three victories had been rather different.
The Rams had three wins in their first 10 games with five of their seven losses coming by one goal.
The Falcons had three wins in four games. While it did start a little later, Peddie had only played four games in the first three weeks of its season.
That did not change the toughness of each squad yesterday, but it did make Hightstown a little more eager to change their fate, which it did by pulling out a 2-1 victory.
The win snapped a threegame losing streak for head coach George Wolkiewicz’ club and snapped a threegame scoreless streak.
“I told my teammates, ‘We have to turn the tide now,’” Rams senior midfielder Brandon Us de Leon said. “We need one.”
Us de Leon snapped his team’s scoreless streak when he knocked a pass from junior midfielder Ariel Barreto past Falcons senior goalkeeper Owen O’Neil with 16:49 left in the first half.
“I hung back and waited for space,” Us de Leon said. “When I saw I had enough room to take the shot, I did.”
And just like that, Hightstown’s fortunes changed.
However, Us de Leon’s goal also appeared to wake head coach Malcolm Murphy’s players, who responded 3:36 later when junior midfielder Toma Hirose beat Rams senior goalkeeper Jacob Forst with the tying goal.
“We had scoring opportunities, especially in the first half, but our finishing wasn’t good today,” Hirose said. “We were coming off a great game vs. PDS (Princeton Day School, a 1-0 win Sept. 24). We had a few people out this game, so I think injuries were a significant factor for us as well.”
Each team’s defense tightened at that point, but Hightstown junior forward Herbert Ramirez was able to take advantage with 5:31 left in the first half when a ball deflected off a defender. Ramirez retrieved the ball and began a dash toward the goal, beating O’Neil with the go-ahead tally.
Fourteen minutes into the second half, Hirose got another rip on net, which curled just wide, yet the Rams’ back line of Pablo Rivadeneira, Steven Pacheco, Bryan Ortega and Nicolas Salazar-Escobar would not crack in front of Forst.
Peddie’s defensive corps of Tobias Bickford, Tyler Kowal, Andy Quinn, Chris Stizza and Aidan Loughran was equal to the task in front of O’Neil, keeping the visitors from scoring again in the second half, while also helping get one last chance for the home side.
A foul deep in Hightstown’s end with 1:45 remaining gave the Falcons a free kick just outside the box. Quinn stepped forward to take the kick, but his blast hit the Rams’ wall of defenders before being cleared to snap Peddie’s three-game winning streak.
Hightstown(4-7) 2 0 — 2
Peddie (3-2) 1 0 — 1
Goals: Us de Leon, HRamirez (H), Hirose (P); Assist: Barreto (H).
Shots: 9 (H), 5 (P); Saves: Forst 3 (H), O’Neil 6 (P).