Girls Soccer – Colts Neck, Freehold Township Advance to SCT Final

Toms River, NJ - The Shore Conference Tournament Girls Soccer Championship is set for Saturday night as No. 1 Colts Neck will face No. 2 Freehold Township at Summerfield School in Neptune at 7 p.m.

Freehold Township (15-3-1, 9-2-1) beat Rumson-Fair Haven in the opener tonight 5-0 and Colts Neck (17-0-1, 11-0-1) took the third meeting of the year over Wall in the night cap, 2-0.

Freehold Township jumped out to a 1-0 first half lead over No. 6 Rumson in the 28th minute when Jasmine Colbert scored off a header from Caleigh Farrell. In the second half, the Patriots put their offensive abilities on display as the owned every aspect of the second half and gave the Bulldogs no breathing room in any third of the field. Freehold Township quickly got to work when outside midfielder Jasmine Colbert forced a defensive turnover and beat the defender to the end line and after a beautiful pass found a wide open Nicole Whitley, Whitley finished the goal and the Patriots increased their lead to 2-0 in the 49th minute.

"We knew that a 1-0 lead against a tough opponent like Rumson was not going to be enough," Freehold Township coach Dave Patterson said. "The girls went out in the second half and put together probably their best soccer of the season."

The Patriots added to the lead two minutes later when Schwartz intercepted another defensive pass and fired a shot on net that was deflected wide and Kiersten Reszkowski finished off the attack to make it 3-0. Lacey Powell got into the assist column when she served a beautiful corner to the six yard line and Victoria Coppa put it in the back of the net. Whitley helped finish off the scoring when she found a wide open Alyssa Rezkowski down the right side for the fifth goal.

Colts Neck came ready to play in the SCT Girls Soccer semifinal night cap when they went toe-to-toe with Class B North division foe Wall. This was the third meeting of the season between the two schools and for the third time this season the Cougars were victorious, winning 2-0.

Frankie Tagliaferri opened the scoring in the second minute of play when Colts Neck defender Amanda Visco cleared a ball out and when Wall misplayed the ball on the bounce, Tagliaferri split the defenders and received the ball on a breakaway and put the Cougars on top 1-0.

"When you play against a tough opponent like Wall Township three times in one season they are going to make adjustments and they did just that," Colts Neck coach Doug Phillps said. "We were just good enough today to get the win, it was not a pretty win but we will take it."

Tagliaferri got back into the scoring when she crafted a beautiful cross from 25 yards out and put the ball right on the left foot of Bridgette King who settled the ball and then blasted a right footed shot into the back of the net to put the finishing touches on a 2-0 victory for Colts Neck.