The terrific season for Allentown High School’s girls’ soccer team has continued in the Mercer County Tournament, where the top-seeded Redbirds advanced to the semifinals after shutting out its opponents during the first two rounds.
Allentown, which was set to play as the host to fifth-seeded Hopewell Valley Central High School on Oct. 24, defeated No. 9-seed Lawrence High School by a 1-0 score in the quarterfinals on Oct. 21 in Allentown.
Allentown topped Lawrence on a diving header by junior Alex Searing with 15 minutes left in the second half. The victory improved the Redbirds’ record to 16-0 on the season.
Winning the Mercer County Tournament and remaining undefeated was a goal for forwards Emma Pascarella, a junior, and Vanessa Rodriguez, a sophomore.
“We want to win the whole thing,” Pascarella said. “We’re working hard, as our record would prove. We’re undefeated right now, and I think that as long as we’re going in confident and we’re working together, we’ll do well.”
“I think we just have to come out hard — just keep the intensity up for the entirety of every game,” Rodriguez said.
Allentown defeated 16th-seeded Trenton Central High School, 6-0, in the first round of the tournament on Oct. 19. Six different goal-scorers contributed to the Redbirds’ offensive effort. A victory against Hopewell Valley would have advanced Allentown to the championship game on Oct. 26 against the winner of the matchup between No. 2-seed Pennington School and No. 3-seed Steinert High School.
The girls’ confidence in the Redbirds’ ability to capture the county tournament stems from the way the players complement each other.
“[We] definitely [want to] work together and play off of each other,” Pascarella said. “I think that Carly [Roche] is huge in our middle, and she definitely helps with distributing the ball up to us forwards. We all work together so well, and I think that if we keep that up, we’ll definitely get something good out of it.”
“The defense has to keep getting shutouts,” Rodriguez said. “The whole team will have to keep working together.”
In their pursuit of remaining undefeated, the players are aware they must keep their energy up the whole game.
“I think we should work on playing our hardest the entire game,” Rodriguez said. “We have to keep the intensity up the entire game and not slow up.”
“We’re either a first-half team or a second-half team,” Pascarella said. “I think that we need to work on being both.”
Allentown coach Kim Maurer was happy to play Lawrence, noting the team would be a tough test for her young players.
“Lawrence was going to be our biggest test that we’ve had in a while,” Maurer said. “We haven’t had anybody that strong in at least two weeks, so this was a great test for us.”
The coach has been impressed with the team’s chemistry.
“I know this team was close last year, but they’re even closer now,” Maurer said. “They’ve accepted the freshmen very well. They all hang out together. It’s such a tight group. It’s really awesome. They’re very humble about getting the [No. 1] seed in the Mercer County Tournament. They know there’s more work to be done, and they’re not just going to give the title to us. We’re going to have to work for it. Our motto has been ‘Stay humble, stay hungry.’ ”
Maurer was intrigued by the possibility her team facing adversity.
“We’ll go as far as they take themselves,” the coach said. “They’re going to have to want it. I know they do, but I want to see what happens when they get hit with adversity. What happens if we’re down a goal? We haven’t been down all season, so it’s something that as a coach, I’m looking for.”
Maurer still believes her team will be up for the task if the moment presents itself.
“It bothers me a little bit that we haven’t dealt with it yet,” she said. “But they’re very calm, cool and collected. This is a great group. They’re veterans. Even though I only have three seniors that start, all the young players have been in this before. If it wasn’t soccer, it was basketball or something that they’ve been in this situation. So I’m good.”
