It’s been years in the making, but the Robbinsville High School boys’ soccer team is finally where it wants to be. Two years ago, the boys finished the season with two wins, but they followed that by notching six—which tied the school record for wins in a season—in 2014.
This year, though, they broke the school record and more, finishing at 11-7-1 and earning a state tournament berth that ended in a heartbreaking penalty kick loss to Bernards in the quarterfinals on Nov. 6.
It’s something the current group has been working towards the last four years.
“It’s been a steady progression,” said senior Paul Pietrini. “When we came in as freshmen, the program was really just very different from what it is right now. I credit [head coach Jeff Fisher] and the senior class with changing the culture at Robbinsville. Now, it’s expecting to win games instead of hoping to go out there and win games luckily.”
The Ravens started the season at 3-5, including a string of four straight one-goal losses. It was a tough stretch, said Fisher, a former assistant coach who is in his second full year at the helm for Robbinsville. But the squad turned it around and won eight of the last 10 games.
“Our conference is extremely tough,” he said. “I think we built character from that, we learned from that. Even though it kind of stinks that we didn’t get a couple of the calls our way in those close games, I think we benefitted in the end.”
Pietrini said the team was “rattled” after its first eight games.
“But we stuck together, we refocused and we talked some things out,” he said. “We ended up building it back up. I’m happy with the way that we did that. It was impressive, and a lot of that was the junior class. They’re all developing into young leaders. We know that we’re leaving the program in good hands going forward as far as expecting winds next year.”
Brian Wojton, the team’s leading scorer the last two years, is one of those juniors. He said that winning any of those early games could have altered the course of the season.
“I know that home field advantage doesn’t feel that major sometimes, but playing on our home turf is so much more beneficial for our team,” he said. “If we win one of those close games, who knows. We could have possibly been home for MCTS and/or states. That could have completely changed the season.”
Regardless, the Ravens did wind up with the best season in school history. One of the highlights, the players agreed, was a 3-2 win over West Windsor South on Oct. 19, Robbinsville’s senior night. At the time, the Pirates were ranked 19th in the state and had only lost three games. It was by far the best team the Ravens had beaten all season.
And though the way the season ended is still difficult for the team to reflect on, there are some positives to the PK loss, especially for next year’s returners.
“The main thing is that through all that adversity, we’re battle-tested,” Wojton said. “We’ve been through so many difficult, hard-fought games. To lose that way in states after playing solid soccer, we just have to take that for next year and use that as fuel to try and demolish what we did this year.”
Fisher and the players agreed that a growing number of teammates have started taking the game more seriously.
“My freshman year, most of the seniors and starters weren’t on club teams,” senior Joey Lettera said. “They were more or less playing to play the sport, rather than playing because they loved it. None of them wanted to go to college to play. These past two years, everyone’s really bought in. Everyone’s been playing on a club team. We’ve grown experience, we’ve grown togetherness. It’s going to keep building.”
Pietrini credits Fisher with pushing that mindset on the team.
He added that Fisher strikes the perfect balance between being a “players’ coach” and one who is more game- and technique-oriented.
“You really get the best of both worlds,” Pietrini said. “Fish drove us throughout the summer, challenged us and was a good role model for us. He provided us with a lot of leadership and creating out formation, teaching us how to use it right. That was the concrete base for our season. Without that, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere.”
But Fisher lay all the credit on Pietrini, Lettera—both captains—and the rest of their class.
“Whatever we do next year and years beyond is because of the groundwork that these seniors have built here,” Fisher said. “I tell them that I’m forever appreciative of what they’ve done and the leadership that they’ve shown. Two years ago, we saw that we could play with the good teams. This year, we learned that we could beat the good teams. That will be the biggest dividend from these past two seasons.”
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