Last year, Duncan O’Connor led Hopewell Valley in goals as a junior, with 14. This year, the senior captain has picked up right where he left off, and is again the leading scorer with four so far, for a team that started the season 5-1 with wins over Hillsborough, Trenton, Allentown, Notre Dame and Hightstown.
Coach Ed Gola, who has been coaching at HoVal for 21 years — 13 as head coach of the varsity boys’ soccer team — says he made O’Connor, 17, the team captain because he shows leadership on the field and off. “He’s a player that always wants to be around the ball,” Gola said. “He wants to have an impact on the game.”
Gola said O’Connor’s goal-scoring record comes down to his ability to get himself in position to score. “He just needs to have more consistency finishing those opportunities,” he said.
O’Connor, a Pennington resident, has been playing soccer for just seven years, including three at the high school level. He agrees that he can improve, and has set himself the goal of matching last year’s goal tally, while getting more assists. “But the most important thing is just winning games,” he said.
Gola said another key player for the team is senior Dante Bettino, who anchors the defense alongside fellow senior Sean O’Brien. He also named junior Max Wills, who has contributed one goal against Allentown so far, and senior Azad Aghababian, who has tallied up three goals this season, as two players that help distribute the ball, controlling the midfield and transition play.
There are several other seniors who have made significant contributions this season. Connor Fedor is even with Aghababian with three of his own goals this year, while Dylan Markulec and Ryan Pfau have scored two each so far. Goalkeeper Bobby Dorsett has made 42 saves this fall.
The team could get a boost in the coming weeks. One player who was expected to be influential for the team this season, but who has yet to play in a game, is senior Abdullah Afridi. Afridi, described by O’Connor as one of the best players on our team, partially tore his medial collateral ligament in the summer. Afridi missed much of last season with an ankle injury, but still managed to score six goals.
Gola said that Afridi could be back playing games soon.
“We are targeting him to be back sometime within the next week,” Gola said. “He has to build the muscles around his knee. He’s getting closer, he’s been practicing. If he gets cleared, he’ll start working himself back in.”
O’Connor said he’s played with Afridi for a long time and is looking forward to his return. “He always makes an impact in every game,” O’Connor said. “He’s also a great leader, and I’m really looking forward to having him back.”
In the meantime, the Bulldogs are preparing for a challenging month ahead. They are scheduled to play at Nottingham Oct. 1, home against Lawrence Oct. 5, and away to Hamilton West and Princeton Day School Oct. 7 and 8. If they can continue their good run of form, they may be able to start thinking about this year’s playoffs.
In last year’s Mercer County Tournament, the boys reached the quarterfinals but lost to Steinert by one goal. Perhaps more bittersweet was their loss to Mendham after making it all the way to the NJSIAA North 2, Group 3 finals. The game’s final score was 2-1.
But with more than a dozen returning seniors this season, many of whom have played together since at least sophomore year, HoVal may have a genuine chance of not only repeating last year’s results but perhaps going further.
“Last year was a stepping stone for what we want to be this year. We were under the radar. Our expectations were not as high. This year, I think our expectations and our thought process is different,” Gola said. “The most important thing for us is that we’ll be playing our best soccer in October when it’s tournament time. We want to be able to have home playoff games, that’s important to us.”
O’Connor, for one, is ready to dig in. “Every game’s always a battle when it comes to that time of year,” he said. “We take it one game at a time.”
The Hopewell Valley girls’ varsity soccer team is off to an equally strong start this season with no losses so far. They have racked up seven wins, against Princeton, Hillsborough, Trenton, Allentown, Lawrenceville, Notre Dame, and Hightstown. Bridgewater-Raritan managed to tie with the Bulldogs. The team is led by head coach John McGinley and leading scorer and senior Katarina Nilsson, who has 15 goals already this year.
Hopewell Valley senior Duncan O’Connor, left, puts one past the Hightstown goalie on Sept. 22, 2016 at Ackerson Field. HoVal won the game, 2-1. (Photo by Karolina Zachor.),
