Forget the 51 career goals and 17 assists. Forget the fact that Adriana Salzano led the Princeton Day School girls soccer team in scoring three of her four years.
“While the stats helped qualify her,” Panthers coach Chris Pettit noted, “Dre’s influence goes far beyond what you see on the score sheet.”
How so?
“Her intensity and passion for the sport is second to none,” Pettit said. “Her attention to detail for what it takes to be a successful player and a successful program are infectious. Over the last couple of years she’s been the benchmark.”
In Salzano’s final year of high school competition, PDS became the benchmark of NJSIAA Non-Public B soccer as it won a non-prep state championship for the first time in school history.
After losing in the Mercer County Tournament and Prep B quarterfinals this year, Salzano had one last chance for the tournament title she ached for. And she went after it, collecting five goals and an assist in the first four Non-Public B wins, then dropping back to defend in the final 20 minutes of a 2-0 victory over Mount St. Dominic in the championship game.
“When we lost preps in the first round, I was like ‘Well this is our last shot,’ and I had said to myself at the beginning of the season, ‘I’m not leaving this program without winning something,’” the Hamilton Square resident said three days after the finals. “When that whistle blew, I was absolutely speechless. I was like ‘Oh my God, we’re state champions!’”
PDS gained entry into the Non-Public Tournament in 2021, but lost in the quarterfinals each of the past two years. This year, it made history.
“It’s crazy to even think about,” Salzano said. “Then again, we prepared so much and worked so hard, I just think we deserve every single minute of (celebrating) it.”
No one was happier for Salzano than her coach, who took over for long-time success story Patrick Trombetta in Dre’s sophomore year. “For that to happen to Dre in that kind of setting was a fitting send off,” Pettit said. “She’s been the heart and soul of this team for the three years I’ve been there.”
She did it by bucking the family’s sporting traditions. Cousin Gennaro played baseball for Steinert, and uncle Jerry played with the Thunder. Sister Nicolette was a standout travel softball player (now a New Jersey banking investigator).
“Soccer was never our strong suit, but I just fell in love with it at the age of three,” Salzano said. “I always enjoyed playing with the ball. Wherever I went I always had it with me.”
She joined the Hamilton Wildcats at age 4 and played up in age for most of her club career. Dre moved to the NJ Rush and, at the ripe old age of 8, knew she wanted to play college soccer. She moved to FC Bucks at age 12. Several years later she landed at PDA South.
“I had to make the switch so I could be with college coaches to get noticed,” Salzano said.
When it came to high school, she had the grades and talent to look into private schools, and was immediately impressed by the PDS campus and Trombetta.
“Coach T made it clear that it was very simple: you work hard, you prove you can make an impact on the team and you’re gonna start,” the midfielder recalled. “In preseason I think I showed that, and that’s why I got the minutes and started. I was very confident in myself and he’s an amazing coach.”
Salzano led the Panthers in goals with nine and was second in assists with six as they went 10-1 in the virus-shortened campaign.
“As a freshman I was very petite,” she recalled. “Playing against the top teams in the state as a ninth grader, it was just a surreal experience. I was soaking it all in, I knew, ‘Hey this is what I worked for all those hours,’ just to be out there with all those upperclassmen.”
Concern struck after that season as Trombetta left for Trinity Hall (which PDS defeated in the South Jersey Non-Public A final this year). It was a gut punch for Salzano, whose potential four-year Utopia was suddenly in jeopardy.
“The moment he told me he left, I actually think I cried,” she said. “He gave me those opportunities and built me up to be that impact player my freshman year. He molded me into the type of player he was looking for. When I found out he was leaving, I was like ‘Oh my God, this can’t be happening.’”
Fortunately, Salzano knew of Pettit from NJ Rush, and while high school is a different animal than club, she said it didn’t take long to see he knew what he was doing. “To win a state championship his third year at the school shows he’s definitely a great coach,” she said.
Over the next two years, the Panthers had good-but-not-great records, going a combined 21-15-3. Salzano’s skills remained on display, with 12 goals and five assists as a sophomore and 13 and two as a junior. Pettit knew he had a natural goal scorer.
“Her left foot and right foot, she could do it all,” he said. “She can head the ball, she’s got two good feet, great balance. Her first touch is always on point.”
Just as importantly, she’s cool under fire. “She’s very composed in front of the goal,” Pettit said. “Everybody else gets excited and sees their name in the paper before the ball has even hit the back of the net. They’ll try and do too much, swing too fast. Dre is very calm, almost nonchalant with how she finishes.”
Entering this season, Salzano gained a new role as a team captain. It was not a duty she took lightly, and Pettit noticed that on the team’s preseason fitness run. As one who awakens at 6 a.m. to run and workout, Dre prided herself on doing well and winning that run as an underclassmen.
This year, after getting out ahead of the pack, she slowed her pace, allowing everyone in her group to nearly catch up and then pace them. Pettit estimates everyone’s times were 30 seconds faster than they would have been had Salzano just gone out and won the run by her usual two laps.
“That was huge for her to do that and it paid off,” the coach said. “She stayed with that group and pushed them along and everyone benefitted, including Dre herself. She made other people around her better.”
How much of a difference that made was anyone’s guess, but PDS finished 17-2-3 in Non-Public B. Salzano led the way with 17 goals and four assists and that number could have been swollen even further if “goals prevented” were added to the total.
“She plays a good portion of games as a defensive midfielder,” Pettit said. “She’ll be an attacking or defensive midfielder depending on how the game goes. The last 20 minutes, when we needed to keep control of the game (against Mount St. Dominic) she played as a defensive midfielder. The fact she is a top goal scorer while doing that speaks to her talents.”
Dre will take those talents to Monmouth University next fall. She was recruited by schools from throughout the country and was checking out West Coast programs before deciding it would be better to stay near home. Much like her first visit to PDS, Salzano fell in love with Monmouth the minute she stepped onto campus.
“I knew in my heart this is where I want to be,” she said. “I didn’t need to look anywhere else.”
Pettit is friends with the Hawks’ goalkeepers coach, and feels Monmouth is a good fit for his outgoing star. “She’s got all of the attributes to do very well in college. I think she’s gonna have a stellar career,” he said.
Before leaving, however, Dre will reflect on what she calls “an amazing and perfect” four years at PDS. Aside from soccer, Salzano played basketball and softball while carrying an A average in the classroom. She was in the coding and finance clubs, with the latter helping prepare her as a business and marketing major.
“This was everything I was looking for,” Salzano said. “It’s got the great sports, the great academics, and a great community. It’s the perfect school you could imagine as a high school.”
And she was as perfect a player the Panthers could imagine as their soccer leader.
Princeton Day School senior Adriana Salzano signs a National Letter of Intent to go to Monmouth University to play soccer. With her are dad Jerry, mother Leesa, sister Nicolette and brother Gennaro.,
