Piscataway Labor Day Tournament

The Scotch Plains Lightning U 13 Intercity Girls Soccer team swept through their first test of the season winning all four games at the Piscataway tournament September 7-8 at Piscataway High School.

While the degree of difficulty differed from game to game the common thread that ran through the sweltering late summer weekend was stingy defense and clutch goalkeeping with just enough offense. The final victory was the most dramatic as the Edison United Independence battled the Lightning to a scoreless tie that was decided on penalty kicks.

Goalie Rachel Parker was unscored upon in five shots and Heather Rodriguez converted her penalty shot to give the Lightning the victory and clinch the title. Parker made a sprawling diving save on Edison’s third shot to preserve the scoreless tie before Rodriguez,who celebrated her birthday the day before, hit a hard high shot into the middle of the net.

Earlier on Sunday, the Lightning were true to their name breaking a scoreless tie in the second half with a barrage of two goals in a minute to defeat the Edison United Express .2-0. Angelica Glover took a long pass from Cathy Harley and outran the defense before hitting a perfectly placed left footed shot into the corner. A minute later Rodriguez,the daughter of coach Luis Rodriguez took a pass from Rachel Kreyer and hit a hard low shot from ten yards away. The result was made even more impressive because the Express play two flights higher than the Lightning.

Parker played the second half in goal in each of the four games. On Sunday, Jaclyn Lazarus held the Edison teams scoreless in the first half while on Saturday it was Brittany Biondi and Cathy Harley combining in the first game and Rachel Kreyer in the second game.

The first Saturday contest was a dominating 1-0 victory over Metuchen which was much more one sided than the score may indicate. Glover provided the only scoring on a penalty kick but the Lightning had numerous opportunities to score while keeping the ball almost entirely in the Metuchen end.

In the second game they finally converted some of the opportunities in a comfortable 3-0 triumph. Katie Cornacchia initiated the scoring by converting a pass from Kristen Thompson. The Lightning poured it on with Javonni Costello and Brittany Biondi tallying on two long high shots.

All weekend the defense suffocated the opposition. Making life easy for the goalies were fullbacks Javonni Costello, Alyssa Straniero, and Maria-Pia Rivero. Shuttling between midfield and offense were Joanna Naugle, Nina Brownstone, Jessica Nagourney and Cheryl Monteiro.

The Lightning face a rematch with the Edison United Independence next Sunday – 1:30 pm at Thomas Edison Park-Field 1.