Pennington winning the close ones

The Red Raiders have recorded all of their wins by two goals or less

By Steve Sherman
Sports Editor
One of Pennington’s goals this season is to improve over last year’s 8-8 record.
Wednesday’s 3-1 triumph over the Solebury School lifted the Red Raiders to 3-3 so whether or not Pennington will reach its objective remains to be seen.
One thing is for sure however, the Red Raiders are winning the close ones, something Pennington had problems with last year.
Including Wednesday’s triumph over the Spartans, the Raiders have recorded all three of their wins by two goals or less. Pennington recorded its first win Sept. 14 with a hard-fought 1-0 road victory over Nottingham. Two days later at home, the Raider outpaced Morrisville, 2-0, at home.
“A lot of the time, we’ve lost those games in past years so I think it’s good that we’re winning them, even though it might only be by one or two goals,” stated Pennington senior co-captain Maddie Scherer, a midfielder playing in her fourth and final year for the Red Raiders.
While junior midfielder Lexi Sorrentino put a pair of goals into the back of the cage against Solebury, it was senior halfback Melissa Iorio, of Hopewell Township, who tallied the game-winner.
Pennington led, 2-0, by the break and made that edge stand up with both teams scoring once apiece after the intermission.
“In these games that we’re playing that are close wins, the girls are playing with a lot of heart,” stated first-year head coach Wendy Morris, who has taken the reigns of the team from longtime skipper Ida Malloy.
“We’re playing teams where the game could go either way,” added the new coach. “Luckily, they’ve gone OUR way.”
Malloy isn’t the only one missing from the field hockey program here. With graduation, the Raiders lost three seniors including starting keeper Amanda Flores and center-backfielder Paige Scharite.
Playing in between the pipes this year at Pennington is Morgan Huth, a player who was stationed at midfield last season.
“She’s doing so awesome in goal for us this year,” stated Scherer. “It’s really good to have her step up.”
And stepping up in place of Scharite at center-back has been Iorio.
“We’ve had to shift back to the defense,” explained Scherer.
While that defense helped Pennington come out ahead the last day of September, Iorio says her side performed better before the break.
“Our confidence got a little too high in the second half. That’s just something our team has to work on,” she said.
“I think overall, we played really well though.
“We worked together as a team, and we communicated. We had great stick skills. It was good that we got the ball in the cage three times.”
While wins are always good, there are just 20 girls in the program, many of whom are either playing a new sport or a new position. Pennington’s lack of depth stood out in lopsided losses to Hun, New Hope-Solebury and Morrestown Friends.
“Those games weren’t as close but those teams have a lot more depth than we do,” stated Morris. “We have a lot of girls who are playing for the first time.”
And Morris, a coach with more than 20 years coaching experience at Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, is right there to guide the newcomers and veterans alike,
“She’s really worked on developing stick skills and [new] positions on the field. A lot of girls haven’t played before,” stated Scherer.
“It’s been really good as far as teamwork and learning new things.”
“Coach Morris has been so positive and worked us really hard.
“And we need the work so it’s good.”
“I’m here to grow the program. It’s a good group and they’re making progress,” said Morris.
In addition to the desire to outpace the performance posted by the 2008 team, Iorio, Scherer and their cohorts would like to build for the future.
“We want to develop stick skills for the new players so when everyone is rising up, we’ll be stronger as a program,” explained Sherer.
Iorio sees players stepping up on both sides of the ball.
“Maddie [Scherer] is crazy--she scores a lot. And Lexi Sorrentino is really good with getting the ball in the goal.
The Raiders also have some players stepping up on defense, among them junior Kate Kuzo and sophomore Gina Molinero. After missing most of last season due to injury, Kuzo is back on defense, stronger than ever, says Iorio.
“She was injured last year but she’s really stepping it up this year,” said Iorio.
“Overall our defense is really strong this year. There’s a lot more people to rely on and do well.”
That much has been demonstrated thrice over now in three wins for Pennington.