High School Girls Soccer: Seniors Setting the Tone for Resurgent New Brunswick

NEW BRUNSWICK – Just five games into this season, the New Brunswick High School girls soccer team had already eclipsed last year’s win total.

Now at 5-5-2, the Zebras have left the memories of last year’s two-win season in the past and are filled with confidence after last week’s 3-0 victory over perennial powerhouse North Brunswick.

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“This season, after winning some games, we go to games looking for a win, rather than like last year,” said co-captain Diana Martinez. “Last year, we’d look at a team and think they weren’t beatable, and we’re going to take an ‘L.’ This year, we come with our heads held high and we know that if we play hard, we will beat them.”

Second-year coach Ingrid Morales, NBHS Class of 2012 who played defensive center halfback and goalie during her time as a player on the girls soccer team, said the team’s resurgence can be traced to the summer.

Starting in July and increasing in August, she, assistant coaches Paola Duran and Daniel Montes and a handful of assistant coaches including former head coach Guillermo Ezeta, pushed the players. They ran a lot of stairs and went on three-mile runs, just to name a few of the drills.

Morales also reserved Wednesdays for team bonding, though. The team became closer over potluck meals, games with pool noodles and fun drills in which two players had to keep a ball pinned between them as they moved.

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“We communicate together,” co-captain Yatziri Sanchez Alvarez said. “We talk to each other in and out of school, in practice, out of practice. We’re really close.”

Added Martinez: “Since a lot of us are upperclassmen and we all know each other very well, the (summer team-bonding days) helped us get closer to the underclassmen and introduce them to the season, how we are as a team and, basically, what we all expect.”

Competing in the Greater Middlesex Conference Gold Division this season, the Zebras started out with a 3-2 win over Calvary Christian of Old Bridge. Following a tie and a loss, they beat Perth Amboy Magnet, Middlesex and Somerset Tech in quick succession.

The Zebras experienced the inevitable peaks and valleys that come with any soccer season, and then lost three straight.

However, the 3-0 victory over North Brunswick on Sept. 28 has been a defining moment for the team.

The Zebras, who travel to South River to play the Rams on Monday, Oct. 7 at 4 p.m., have benefitted from fielding a balanced team loaded with senior leadership throughout the lineup.

Striker Catherine Velasquez (four goals in the victory over Somerset Tech) has been the offensive spark, Martinez is a field general in the midfield, Sanchez Alvarez anchors the defense as center back and keeper Lizeth Jimenez Silva has been excellent.

“Winning those earlier games, I think, really helped their morale because it’s not something a lot of them had experienced before,” Morales said. “Coming down a division and playing all these teams kind of gave them a different way of playing on the field. They’re touching the ball more. They’re able to make plays now.

“The early success I think really helped them learn how to play, and I think as we keep going it will help them create their style,” she added.

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