East Brunswick (2-4)

Despite a fourth straight loss to their nemesis,the Central Jersey Tidalwave, the Scotch Plains Lightning U13 Girls Soccer Team took away a good feeling from a 4-2 loss on a chilly misty Mother’s Day at Wardlaw Hartridge School in Edison. Trailing 4-0 midway through the first half the Lightning refused to quit and mounted a furious rally that came painfully close to making it a one goal game.

Although the weather was unseasonably cold and windy it still was a far cry from the March 30 opener played at East Brunswick that was played in a cold biting rain and resulted in a 5-0 loss. This one appeared just as bad as the Tidalwave connected on two long high sahos and a perfectly placed low one for a 3-0 lead. It got worse as a long cross was kicked in a by a Lightning player.

“We told the girls to not allow any long kicks, That is CNJ Tidalwave strength. We let them do it and we went down 4-0”, said Coach Luis Rodriguez. Katie Cornacchia got one back just before halftime when she converted a pass from Alyssa Straiero for her team leading third goal.

At halftime Rodriguez made some daring moves including moving his best defender Javonni Costello to offense and switching his daughter, the solid Heather rodriguez to defense. The changes enlivened the Lightning offense and Costello’s speed provided numerous scoring opportunites finally resulting a beautiful goal to cut the lead to 4-2 midway throught the second half.

“At half time basically we told the girls do not give up. Let's play real soccer, passing, ball control, effort and more effort. Put the score away, let's assume starts again.”, said Rodriguez.
“ The girls came ready and responded good. I thing we out played them in the second half. “