Salmon’s brace leads Trenton to win over Hamilton

TRENTON >> Jamie Salmon wants to help out his Trenton High varsity boys soccer team the best way he knows how.

Salmon, a junior forward for head coach Joe Fink’s squad, has a nose for the goal.

Like his senior teammate Antoniel Barker, Salmon can score in waves and gives his team a nice target up top.

He has shown that in the last two games by cranking in six goals, including a pair Thursday to lead the Tornadoes to a 2-0 win over Hamilton, which helped lock up a state tournament berth for his squad.

“That’s my specialty,” Salmon said of his scoring knack. “It’s part of an urge I’ve been having to help this team.”

To get there, Salmon had to get back into Fink’s good graces after what the young man referred to as “issues with attendance.”

“Coach gave me a second chance. Now I have to show him I appreciate it,” Salmon said.

His teammates obviously also appreciate having a second target up top besides Barker, who leads the club with 14 goals. Salmon now has seven.

“I look up to him,” Salmon said of his fellow Jamaican Barker. “Antoniel is a role model to me.”

Trenton (7-5-1) needed someone to step up in the second half yesterday after head coach Chris Morales’ Hornets (3-8-3) stayed even with the Tornadoes through the first 40 minutes.

With senior goalkeeper Giuseppe Scordato stopping 10 shots, Hamilton was keeping Trenton out of net, but the home team was noticeably picking up its chances after the break.

Then, with under 23 minutes left, senior forward Linner Mateo kept a ball alive in the box and centered a pass to Salmon, who kicked it into the lower near corner to get the Tornadoes on the board.

“When the first goal happened, we felt it was just unlucky,” Hamilton senior midfielder Silvio Aparicio said. “We had to pick ourselves up.”

The Hornets had chances with Emil Lewandowski, Andyson Joseph and Ian Cabrera all forging quality chances over the next 10 minutes with no finish to show for their efforts. One of the visitors’ best chances came when a shot was headed wide with 15:30 to go.

Bigger concerns came into play when the action started to get a little chippy midway through the second half. Both teams worked through it, but it did not make it any easier on the visitors when Salmon ran down a long lead from senior midfielder Elmer Perez with 12:40 left and connected to double Trenton’s lead.

“We need to work on our composure,” Aparicio said. “After one foul, I felt we were reminiscing about the moment and weren’t playing our game. Once that happened, we were going more for the man than for the ball.”

“When something like that happens, coach has told us that’s when we have to put in the hard work,” Salmon said. “We had to play more seriously — fierce, but in a good way.”

As for his current hot streak, Salmon knows what he and his teammates need to do.

“I’ve got to keep scoring, and we’ve got to keep playing well as a team,” he said.

If so, the Tornadoes could be able to do some damage in the upcoming county and state tournaments.

Hamilton (3-8-3) Trenton (7-5-1) 0 0 — 0 02—2

Goals: Salmon 2 (T); Assists: LMateo, EPerez (T).

Shots: 6 (H), 12 (T); Saves: Scordato 10 (H), Carr 5 (T).