Zach Weyland races past a Ewing player during a game earlier this season.
An 8-10-1 season isn’t really much to brag about.
Unless you’re the Lawrence High boys’ soccer team.
Considering where the Cardinals started and where they ended up, 8-10-1 not only marks a tremendous turnaround, but also symbolizes a group of mentally tough players who refused to let a season slip away to nothing.
Lawrence began the year 0-6-1, suffered another mid-season three-game losing streak and still ended up in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals. The Cardinals narrowly missed qualifying for the Central Jersey Group III tournament.
“To completely turn the season around the way that we did is pretty phenomenal,” said Zach Weyand, the team’s leading scorer with 10 goals and an assist. “All of us made a big contribution to our success in October, so everyone had a sense of pride once the season ended.”
If there was a silver lining to the bad start, it was that it came against several top Colonial Valley Conference teams; five of the losses were by one goal and the other was by two.
“We all realized we had a hard schedule in September and that they would be tough games, like the CVC usually is,” second-year coach Brian Rostron said. “But we were going to compete and try to steal a couple. Even though we didn’t, we played good soccer so we felt good about that.
While the team was “frustrated” with its record, Rostron said its overall play was a bright spot.
“We were doing a lot of things right and only a couple things wrong,” he said. “I did my best to sort those things out in training, making it competitive, and fun, while the boys led themselves and stayed focused. We knew we were approaching some more winnable games in the middle of our season.”
Rostron, who praised the help he got from assistants Mike Underwood, Jeff Molinelli, Steve Ciosek and Scott Shuman, said the fact he had 13 seniors on the roster helped keep Lawrence mentally tough during that time.
“A lot, if not all, of the credit goes to the boys,” Rostron said. “Being in games and almost winning wasn’t good enough for them. The boys really wanted to start winning games. It was really a good group. We didn’t really have any interior issues, we didn’t implode. We focused on playing soccer and sorting out the reasons why we were losing games.”
Part of that focus was on accountability.
“It was hard getting everyone to acknowledge they had some stuff to fix, but once everyone took ownership for their own stuff, we were able to play better as a team,” Rostron said. “It makes sense, most players perform better when they know their teammate is giving one hundred percent because it makes you want to perform at a thousand percent, which is something I started asking players for towards the end of the season – ‘Give me a thousand percent.’
“I just planted the seed. The boys bought into it and made it grow. It was fun to watch and we started winning games.”
Weyand said the players had little trouble looking within themselves. Once that happened, everything became crystal clear.
“Going into the season we expected every person to perform to their full potential, but after the first seven games, none of us were,” he said. “A team with the talent we had shouldn’t have been winless in September. The frustration we had was at ourselves individually, and each of us took the frustration and turned it into a positive outcome.”
The turnaround started on the first day of October, when goals by Weyand, Anthony Scardelletti and Arek Szoldrowski provided a 3-0 victory over Robbinsville.
Finally, the burden of a goose egg under the win column was lifted, and so too were the players’ spirits.
“The Robbinsville win was a great feeling, not only to get our first win, but for it to be at a night game in front of all of the fans,” Weyand said. “Our first shutout and our first game with multiple goals started to spark our season. Afterward the goals started to go in, and our defense’s lapses started to be taken care of by all three of our backs.”
The result was a four-game winning streak, and suddenly Lawrence was one of the most dangerous teams in the county. But another binge of close losses—two by one goal, one by two—to talented teams led to a three-game losing streak and it looked like the Cards had run out of steam. Missing Weyand due to illness at the time didn’t help.
“The (West Windsor-Plainsboro) North game was rough because it was our senior night and we played well, but fell back into not being able to score a goal (in a 1-0 loss),” Weyand said. “It was the same situation with the Hopewell game. It’s a lot of pressure on the defense to keep a shutout in order to stay in contention.
“But three losses isn’t enough to discourage us, especially after the 0-6-1 start. Although I’m not 100 percent sure on how we played possession-wise against PDS since I was still ill, the win was a big turnaround.”
Lawrence beat PDS 1-0 on Oct. 18 which started another four-game win streak. Included were the stunning MCT wins over fifth-seeded Pennington (2-1) and fourth-seeded Hopewell (5-4), as Lawrence was the 12th seed.
The run, and the season, ended with a 4-0 loss to eventual champion Notre Dame.
“Beating Pennington was difficult because we hadn’t played them in the regular season, but we knew they are always a good team,” Rostron said. “We both played good soccer that night. I was very proud of the boys and it was a very emotional night. Guys were emotional and parents and fans were rushing the field.”
That was just the first-half of the double-upset special. Next up was a Bulldogs team that took a 2-0 win during the regular season and a 2-0 lead in the MCT quarterfinal game.
“Going into the Hopewell game we could actually talk about tactics because we played them once before and I stressed that it was hard to beat a team twice, especially after the way we had played against Pennington,” Rostron said. “After the first 20 minutes I thought it was going to be a rough loss. However, we got a penalty kick shortly after, which gave us a spark to go 2-2 into the half.
“We came out and scored three more for a total of five unanswered goals. We were playing really well that day, plus doing something we didn’t do that much of in September which was score goals. We really fought for both those games, played good soccer, and deserved to win.”
The Hopewell win was especially sweet for Weyand, who missed the first game due to sickness, but scored twice in the MCT game.
“Missing Hopewell, especially since we lost, made me want to have as big of an impact on the game as possible,” Weyand said. “Also, the majority of my club team is made up of Pennington and Hopewell kids, so to knock them out of the tournament was a great feeling.”
The Pennington win was special for all 13 seniors, who had never won a county tournament game.
“The games were filled with emotion for us, we all knew that if we lost that was going to be our final game.” Weyand said. “For anyone at the Pennington game, it was obvious by the way the fans stormed the field and how we celebrated, what an MCT win meant for us.”
Rostron pointed to his three captains — Weyand, Scardelletti and Alberto Santiago — as a major reason for the team keeping it together and thriving at the end.
“Zach has good feet, he’s good in the air, and has a lot of passion,” the coach said. “He’s a target, he can take guys one on one and can finish his chances. His impact on the Hopewell game didn’t go unnoticed.”
Like Weyand, Scardelletti was a four-year varsity player who had seven goals and an assist this year.
“He has good feet, a good understanding of the game,” Rostron said. “His greatest strength is his speed and getting around guys. He usually started games at center-mid so we could establish a tempo and sort out what the other team was trying to do. Then we would move him up to forward and he would really cause some problems.”
In his second varsity season, Santiago had a goal and six assists.
“He’s crafty and has good fight,” Rostron noted. “His greatest strength is his ability to serve free kicks, especially corner kicks, using both feet. He is a very emotional player as well.”
Probably the season’s biggest disappointment was coming so close to the state tournament but not getting in.
But the players will still look back on this season as special.
“None of us on the team had ever experienced a playoff win, so the MCT run is unforgettable for everyone,” Weyand said. “The wins, not just the MCT wins, but the turnaround in October, just proved to us that we are capable of beating good teams and that’s what made the season special and successful.”
A season in which Lawrence proved good things happen to guys who hang in there.
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