Girl’s Soccer Takes Down Middle Township 3-1 in Second Round

Heading into the second round of the South, Group 2 Tournament, girl’s soccer knew that they would face a bigger challenge compared to their opener versus Pemberton. They drew a 15-2-1 Middle Township team that recorded 14 shutouts this season, including a 1-0 win over Barnegat in their opener.

Girl’s soccer ignored all of this, focused on the task at hand, and took down the Panthers (15-3-1) by a count of 3-1 to advance to the semifinals of the SJ2 tourney.

“I feel like we were just working hard,” Alex Kane said. “That’s what we were talking about all season. If we work hard, we will be a good team. Working hard, running to the ball, getting every head ball, every ball out of the air; stuff like that.”

Cinnaminson (12-5-2) jumped on the Panthers 44 seconds into the game when Miranda Sackner got her body on a cross from Hailey Gutowski. It was Sackner’s 19th goal of the season.

“We wanted to be the more aggressive, athletic team today,” head coach Matt Digney said. “We didn’t know much about them other than scouting reports. I know our league is a great league and we’re pretty battle-tested and their league is not as strong. I wanted them to really, really feel under pressure the first 30 minutes. We got at ’em.”

Alex Kane made it 2-0 when she deposited a pass from Justyne Gutowski, who had made a run through the defense, into the back of the net.

“We got that early goal and we were still playing well, but I almost thought like our girls thought at one point it was going to be that easy and it wasn’t,” Digney said. “Once Middle got their feet under them, they stepped it up.”

The majority of the first half, if not all of it, was played in the defensive end for Middle Township as Cinnaminson applied tremendous offensive pressure.

“Amanda McHugh always comes in clutch back there,” Kane said, praising the defense. “Lauren Wahl and Christine Bescript work hard and make sure they don’t get by them and don’t let them turn.”

The second half was much more of a back-and-forth affair as Middle Township made some adjustments and began to possess the ball in the Pirates defensive end.

“The second half, Middle did a nice job,” Digney said. “They settled in, they realized what we were trying to do, and they countered us pretty well.”

Cinnaminson forced the Panthers to commit a host of turnovers throughout the game, including a handful on throw-ins.

Kane picked up her third, a huge insurance goal, for the Pirates with 4:19 left in the contest. Just 41 seconds later, Middle Township would score its only goal of the game on a shot from outside the box by Allison Hunter (9 goals). The goal was assisted by Jenn McCann.

Girl’s soccer is now on a five-game unbeaten streak (4-0-1), allowing only three goals over those five games.

“If our defense is playing well, we’re a good team,” Digney said. “We’ve had some situations where we’ve gotten sloppy in the back and it’s filtered all the way up to the front.”

“The past four or five games, they’ve been pretty solid. They communicate well, they know when to play the ball simple, when to just kick it out. Hopefully they can continue to work with each other so well. If they do, we should be okay.”

Cinnaminson advances to the semifinals of the South, Group 2 Tournament, which will be played on Monday, November 9. The Pirates will visit #2 Point Pleasant Boro (17-2-1) at 2:30pm.

Point Pleasant Boro took down Delran on Thursday 5-3. Devon Wondolowski picked up a hat trick (25 goals) in the win.

“I never had a chance to watch them play,” Digney said. “A lot of games like this, you go in the first 15-20 minutes adjusting, figuring out what works and what’s a good matchup for us. That’s what we’ll have to do for at least the first half.”