The girls varsity soccer program wrapped up their season on Monday, October 30, after falling 1-0 to Cinnaminson in the NJSIAA State Tournament. While it was not the end the Lady Hawks were hoping for, it capped the program’s first 10+ win season since the 2017-18 season in which they captured a B-South division title.
The girls finished 3rd in B-South, behind two talented Point Boro and Lacey teams. The Lady Hawks were in a hole early on in the division race, coming up short in a 3-2 loss with a shorthanded team vs Jackson Liberty on their opening day. The division would then ultimately fall out of their hands in late September after the girls fell to Lacey and Point Boro in back to back games. As for the rest of division play, the girls would get the job done, in a commanding fashion at that. They would shut out every other divisional opponent, beating Lakewood 7-0, Barnegat 1-0, Pinelands 3-0, and Donovan Catholic 2-0 to cap off divisional play.
The Lady Hawks had an unfortunate draw for Shore Conference Tournament group play, being matched up to face 3 formidable opponents in Red Bank Catholic, Middletown North and Brick Memorial. Due to this difficult draw, the girls were not able to make it out of the group stages and instead would play in the Shore Conference Coaches Cup.
The Lady Hawks’ run in the Coaches Cup highlighted the most impressive point of their season. They drew Raritan as their first round matchup and would take them down 2-1 on the road as the underdog. Beating Raritan punched the girls a ticket to face the #1 seeded Point Pleasant Beach and a chance to avenge a tough 3-2 loss earlier in the season. They would do just that, taking down Point Pleasant Beach 4-2, moving them into the semifinals vs St. John Vianney. The Lady Hawks would ultimately fall to a strong St. John Vianney side, 2-1.
The upset win over Point Beach was the pinnacle of the girls hot streak that began in mid October. Following a win vs Southern Regional on October 10th, the Lady Hawks would win their next 4 straight, beating Raritan and Point Pleasant Beach as previously mentioned and then beating Raritan for a second time and then finally Donovan Catholic.
The girls were able to ride their hot streak right into the first round of states, where they were slated to play Lower Cape May as a 7 seed underdog. The Lady Hawks did not let the seeding mismatch hamper their confidence, however, and dominated play right from the first whistle. Junior forward Katelyn Carney would finally find the back of the net late in the first half, finishing the job off a missed shot from sophomore forward Madison Cubbison. They would then seal the game off for good with roughly a minute left, extending the lead to 2-0 off senior back Shay Juralewicz’s free kick. With their first round upset, the girls would be lined up to face #4 seeded Cinnaminson in the quarterfinals. The Lady Hawk’s match vs Cinnaminson was a scoreless, defensive oriented game until, unfortunately, Cinnaminson connected to break the deadlock with a little over 5 minutes to go. The girls could not muster up enough to produce an equalizer and their season would come to an end in Cinnaminson.
Some notable individual accomplishments for the Lady Hawks include freshman Madeline Nolan winning Week 5 Shore Conference Player of the Week and netting 10 goals and 3 assists to go along with all in her debut high school season. Madison Cubbison also recorded 8 goals and 2 assists and junior Emma Edwards notched 6 goals and an assist while only playing around half the season due to the 30-day suspension incoming transfers are faced with. Junior goalkeeper Kaia Buckley recorded 154 saves and had 8 clean sheets. Shay Juralewicz is committed to play college soccer at Emerson College. Additionally, Juralewicz, Nolan and Cubbison were named to the All B-South First Team.
While the girls season may have ended earlier than they had hoped, there is a promising outlook on next season, especially on the offensive end as they return their 3 leading scorers. Only time will tell, however, what next season has in store for the Lady Hawks.
