Girls Soccer – Latona’s Late Strike Lifts Freehold in SCT

Girls Shore Conference Tournament Bracket

FREEHOLD – Despite hearing the pleas from teammates and coaches – directed in the general direction of anyone on the field wearing a Freehold Boro soccer jersey – to shoot the ball in a scoreless game in the second half Monday, Freehold junior Ashley Latona preferred to keep the ball moving and wait for the right opportunity.

In the 76th minute, Latona got the right opportunity and hit a shot that was right on the money.

Ashley Latona celebrates her go-ahead goal with Kaleigh Rudic (9). (Photo by Matt Manley)

Latona buried a 30-yard shot from straight on to the upper right corner of the net with a little more than four minutes left and the second-seeded Colonials hung on to beat No. 10 Rumson Monday in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

Freehold will play No. 3 Wall on Wednesday night at 5 p.m., the third straight semifinal appearance for the Colonials.

“I’m the type of player that would rather give the ball to an open teammate to get a shot, but I also knew how much time was left and we needed to start getting shots at the goal,” Latona said. “There were probably other times I could have shot the ball, but I just didn’t think it was the right opportunity.”

Although they failed to score for the first 75 minutes of the game, the Colonials managed to fire up nine shots, four of which were on goal. Aside from Rumson surges at the end of each half, Freehold controlled the ball in the Rumson end of the field for the majority of play, but the nine shots that resulted prior to the goal were not enough to break the scoreless tie.

“It’s a constant reminder for our girls that they have to get shots up,” Freehold coach Elyse Ingui said. “Yeah, it’s great that we’re moving the ball and possessing it, but at some point, we have to try to score and fortunately, with five minutes left in the game, Ashley looked for a shot and hit a good one.”

That changed in the 76th, when sophomore Kaleigh Rudic slid a pass over to Latona following a throw-in. Latona took two touches to her right and with a clear look at the goal from 30 yards out, the junior unleashed a right-footed blast that Rumson-Fair Haven goalkeeper Samantha Beaudreault could only watch tuck inside the right corner of the goal frame.

“I’ve made that shot before in a game situation,” Latona said. “That one might have been from a little farther out and obviously, this game made it more important.”

Rumson-Fair Haven senior forward Janie DeVito had two chances to tie the game in the final three minutes, but Freehold sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Cerio saved a one-on-one chance and DeVito missed just wide of the far right post on the second try.

“They were able to put a lot of pressure on us for a couple stretches in the game and it resulted in a couple of really good chances,” Ingui said. “For any team, for any defense, you have to have confidence that your keeper is going to come up big when you need it and we have total confidence in Jordan. She is very good in those one-v.-one situations because she waits back, she doesn’t jump and she lets the shooter commit to the shot before she reacts.”

Cerio also denied DeVito twice in the first half, the first on another one-on-one chance and the other with a save on a 25-yard shot that Cerio batted off the crossbar. Rumson had two shots right after that crossbar save, but senior Lindsay Cerio covered for her sister and cleared the ball off the goal-line before the next shot by freshman Sofi Giglio sailed wide of the right post.

“I get excited whenever I see that I’m going to get a chance to make a save,” Cerio said. “With our defense, I don’t usually have to make a whole lot, but the key is just to stay ready. (Rumson) has dangerous players and they were able to get some good shots, so I had to stay on my toes.”

Freehold forced Beaudreault to make four saves to preserve the shutout for as long as she did and the Colonials nearly took an early lead on a goal that was disallowed because of an offside call.

While playing against a Rumson team befallen by a string of injuries, Freehold has adjusted to significant injuries. The Colonials continue to play without senior standouts Sophia Duffy and SaraGrace Johnson, and are slowly getting used to life without two mainstays to the lineup.

“Depending on how you look at it, we’re down three starting players right now and with those two in particular, that is significant,” Ingui said. “It’s forced our players to find different niches and as a whole, we’ve had to do things a little differently.”

“I think we definitely just got closer because of (the injuries),” Cerio said. “We couldn’t give up. We had to figure out how to work around and that challenge has made us grow closer as a team.”

Wednesday night in Neptune, Freehold will renew its rivalry with Wall, a Shore Conference Class B North rival over the last two seasons and a regular contender for the Central Jersey Group III title. Freehold now resides in Class A North and is also a Group IV school now, but the Colonials expect the reunion with the Crimson Knights to have the same old feeling.

“We can’t get away from them,” Ingui joked. “They are still rivals. It was nice to get away from playing them in B North this year and hopefully it will just be a good, competitive game of soccer.”

Box Score

Freehold 1, Rumson-Fair Haven 0