Pennington scores two late to snap Steinert’s streak

HAMILTON >> The Pennington School girls soccer team wanted to serve a reminder that it’s still the team to beat in Mercer County.

It just took 74 minutes to break down in-form Steinert’s stubborn resistance to do it.

Kelli Collins and Molly Kain both scored late goals and the Red Raiders beat the Spartans, 2-0, on Saturday night at Veterans Park.

“We told ourselves that going into the MCT that this is the game, the deciding factor in showing the county what we got,” Collins said. “We knew that if we wanted to make a statement and for teams to know what we possess, we needed a big win.”

Two of Pennington’s three losses are against teams ranked in the top-10 nationally (Eastern and McDonogh), while the other is to Princeton Day. Even though the Red Raiders’ 5-3-2 mark doesn’t look exemplary, they are still a side more than good enough to win an 11th MCT title in a few weeks time.

Pennington played with its usual possession style and dominated the number of chances in the game. Villanova-bound junior Kylie Daigle rattled the crossbar in the final minute of the first half and freshman Ava Brass pulled a chance wide midway through the second after Daigle played her in 1 v 1 with the goalkeeper.

Finally, the Red Raiders got their goal when Collins raced onto a flicked header by Stephanie Balerna. The senior captain made no mistake with a calm finish.

Kain tallied an insurance goal in the final minute after Daigle’s longball squirted away from Steinert for her to tap into an empty net.

“We knew that it was going to come and we were fighting for it,” Collins said. “We knew if it came down to the final minutes, we were going to work as a team. Our team chemistry is just so good and we knew that we were going to pull it together.”

Steinert (9-3-1) had its seven-game winning streak snapped.

The Spartans nearly caught the Red Raiders napping in the game’s first two minutes, which provided Margarita Ivanova with a chance that was smartly saved by Sophia Kavulich at her near post. Emma Nini had an opportunity in the second half, but her looping effort fell on the wrong side of the crossbar.

“Every team has talented players,” Collins said. “There’s not one team that doesn’t have a girl that people are watching out for. We show that we have very good soccer quality in Mercer County.”