Stevens girls pull upset in GMC tourney
BY SHAWN LAYTON Staff Writer
The J.P. Stevens High School girls soccer team upset sixth-seeded Spotswood in the opening round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament to advance to the quarterfinals and a meeting with No. 3 Old Bridge. The tourney's No. 11 seed, Stevens, rallied from a one-goal deficit to upend Spotswood 3-1 over the weekend.

"We hadn't played them this year but we lost to them last year, and we knew they had plenty of speed up top in Katie Genaralli," Stevens head coach Christine Nixon said. "We put freshman defender Casey Pelican on Genaralli and Casey shut her down and held her scoreless."

After Spotswood took an early lead, Stevens' Gabby Clarke netted the equalizer off a deflection in the box.

"We've been putting four or five girls ahead to really put pressure on the opposing keeper and to be ready to put back deflected shots," Nixon said. "It's something we've been trying to get our players to do all season, and hopefully they'll continue to do this."

Nixon's players certainly have enough evidence that the plan works, since the team's second goal of the contest by Danielle Manzi came off another deflection.

"We definitely came out and played a little nervous at first," Nixon said. "It took a little while for us to settle into the game, but once the girls settled down, they played really well."

Cassie Cennamo scored the third goal for Stevens off an assist from teammate Katie Camp.

"Katie set up Cassie's goal on a great cross," Nixon said. "Katie and seniors Caroline Vitale and Jessica Hladky really get everything going for us. They controlled the pace of the game and have been our leaders all season."

Stevens' goalkeeper Rachel Loessler also came up big in the win over Spotswood with 13 saves.

"Rachel played really well Saturday," Nixon said. "She was challenged quite a bit and did a nice job. The kids have a lot of confidence in her, which is very important."

After the match-up against No. 3 Old Bridge, a team Stevens has split its two regular season matches with, the Hawks will square off at 7 p.m. tonight on the road in South Plainfield.

Joining Stevens in this week's quarterfinal action is No. 9 Bishop Ahr. The Trojans cruised to a 5-1 win over Cardinal McCarrick behind a pair of goals from Regina Bellizzi. Teammates Alyssa Welsh, Lindsay Brown and Emily Tesoriero also scored in the win. The Trojans were scheduled to take on No. 1 East Brunswick on Tuesday.

Other area teams did not fare so well over the weekend, as Edison and Metuchen were bounced from the tournament in the opening round. Metuchen's Kamila Lapkiewicz scored the lone goal for the Bulldogs off an assist from teammate Abby Dingle. The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 12-5-1 on the season.

Woodbridge advanced to the quarterfinals courtesy of Ally Janiga's second-half goal. Woodbridge will take on No. 10 South Brunswick after the Vikings pulled off a 2-0 upset of No. 7 Sayreville.