A Team Effort for Girls Varsity Soccer

Whenever the East Brunswick Lady Bears hit the pitch, they know they’re not just representing their school, but every girl and boy in town who played soccer, but isn’t on the team.

That attitude is something Coach Kevin Brady tries to instill in his young girls soccer squad, which currently sits at the top of the GMC Red Division with a 10-1-1 record.

“When you’re stepping out on the field, there are some who maybe didn’t make the team, so when you go out there, you’re carrying all of that out there too,” said Coach Brady. “It’s a remarkable opportunity to play for this kind of team. It’s always hard to put into perspective at the moment you’re in it, but I try talking to them about it.”

This idea of carrying on a legacy of soccer tradition and passion is one thing that may have given the squad the motivation to be as successful as it has this year. Last seasons’ squad, which finished 21-3 and won the GMC Championship before moving on to sectional play, graduated 14 players, leaving Coach Brady and his staff to concentrate on how to field the best line up and roster they could. Luckily, the pool of talent was deep.

 “Coming into this season I think people on the outside probably had a lot of questions about the team,” said Coach Brady. “We graduated 14 seniors, a huge number and honestly, all of those 14 were contributing.”

However, Coach Brady said the number of talented girls he had to pick from for this year’s squad made his life hard

“We had talent and had skill, but a lot of kids are new to the varsity, and sometimes in playing high school varsity soccer there are challenges that are unique to soccer,” he said. “In East Brunswick we have a tremendous amount of players with a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge and skill. “

He said that with the girls coming from the ranks of junior varsity and freshmen, as well as from four or five travel teams, he expected the first half of the season to be one of finding an identity. However, with wins over Old Bridge, Piscataway and South Brunswick, the squad is on it’s way to a great year.

“They did a really good job of gelling right away at the start of the season and, at least through the first time through some of the big teams, we did really well,” he said.

At the heart of this year’s team are three seniors, Kelly Morrison at center back, and midfielders Kaitlin Potkulski and Cristina Estremera.

“We need to be strong up the middle, and they’re our central players,” said Coach Brady.

Another senior standout this season may be one of the area’s most clutch performers. Angela Marrone has four goals this year, with two of them coming in overtime victories. Those scores come on the heals of a decisive OT goal she made as a junior in last year’s GMC championship game.

“We won two games in over time this year, and anytime you do that it's amazing. In high school overtime, it’s two, 10-minute overtimes or it ends in a tie. We have one tie, then in the next two games Angela scored winning goals in both…sometimes you have those kids who come up at big moments in the game.”

Another big contributor is junior Natasha Ntone-Kouo, a third team all-state player last year. Also contributing is freshman Sydney Rosa.

“She got to step into a position that we had open, so it was a nice window for her and a nice opportunity. She’s been very successful not just on the field, but her enthusiasm and energy is great. Sometimes when we have freshmen on the team they’re nervous or afraid to step on anyone’s toes, but she was able to engage the older kids.”

Despite some early season successes, the Lady Bears still have they’re work cut out for them. After a 5-0 win over JP Stevens on Thursday, the girls face Piscataway, Old Bridge and South Brunswick once again.

“First time through you're learning about your team, the second time through the division you're trying to find out what the legacy of the team is,” said Coach Brady. “There are very high expectations for our team. That's part of playing for East Brunswick and playing in East Brunswick, and I know the kids put a lot of pressure on themselves, but they also work very hard to try to live up to what has been a very strong tradition dating back 30 years.”