Monroe Township High School’s girls’ soccer team is chock full of confidence — so much so that the players are aiming to achieve some lofty goals.
“We’re taking it all this year,” Gennyka Liebenthal, a sophomore forward, said. “The rest of the season, we’re going undefeated. We’re taking [the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC)]. We’re taking it all. The conference, everything. Everyone better watch out.”
Monroe’s confidence received a major boost when the Falcons defeated rival South Brunswick High School, 2-1, in a physical game that was played on Sept. 12 in Monroe.
Coach Peter Ruckdeschel came away impressed with the victory.
“I thought our team really played well,” Ruckdeschel said. “We had control for most of the game. South Brunswick had some opportunities. They’re a great squad. Their coach always does a great job with them. I know they lost a lot of key players, but it’s impressive how they rebounded today. But I think our girls really rose to the occasion today.
“It’s nice playing at home. It’s nice playing at night, in front of great fans. It really energizes everybody. I still think there’s a lot that we can work on. I’m always going to feel that way. But I think the girls really did well, and they deserved to win today.”
Ruckdeschel stated that the team wanted to simplify the game against South Brunswick, which the Falcons did by dominating the time of possession and holding a commanding 20-4 advantage in shots on goal.
“Our chat before the game was to keep the game simple,” Ruckdeschel said. “We need to play real soccer. That comes with playing the ball on the ground. Our girls have a lot of talent. They have a lot of trust in each other and great chemistry. When they play well, like that today, we’re going to have great success this year.”
Ruckdeschel reiterated that there is still room for improvement.
“I think just like everybody else, we want to finish the ball,” Ruckdeschel said. “We had plenty of opportunities, but we only put two in the net. The keeper made a great save on the [penalty kick], but finishing is one of our top priorities we need to work on.”
“Teamwork, communication and chemistry were huge,” Liebenthal said.
Leilah Mohamed, a senior forward, said that the motivation for the game against South Brunswick came from a 3-2 loss suffered to Piscataway Township High School on Sept. 7.
“I think we were driven from our previous game, and our previous loss,” Mohamed said. “We knew that we could have beaten them, and we took that energy from the past game and brought it into this game because we knew how that felt, and we didn’t want to feel like that again.”
Despite Monroe’s domination, South Brunswick broke a scoreless tie and scored with 4:07 left in the first half.
Monroe responded by scoring 30 seconds later to tie the game on a goal by Mohamed, and the Falcons scored again on a strike from Hannah Van Dusen with only eight seconds left in the half to take the 2-1 lead.
“[When they scored] we just didn’t keep our heads down,” Mohamed said. “We kept our heads up because we knew that just because they scored, that doesn’t mean the game was over. We knew there was a lot of time left. We had like a whole hour left. It was our game, and we knew it.”
“It’s all about that passion,” Liebenthal said. “We had that. As a team, when you have a lot of passion, you have that drive and you just go for it. We were very hungry and ready to eat.”
The players also see that improvement is needed.
“We definitely need to work on our first touch and finishing,” Mohamed said. “We had a lot of opportunities, but we couldn’t get through the ball.”
The Falcons suffered setbacks on Sept. 14 in a 3-0 loss to East Brunswick High School and on Sept. 16 in a 1-0 loss to the Hun School of Princeton.
Monroe was also scheduled to face John P. Stevens High School on Sept. 19 and Edison High School on Sept. 20. The Falcons host Lawrence High School on Sept. 23 at 9 a.m.
