By Connor Cupen
Montclair, NJ – Aileen Cahill and Kylie Prendergast are the real deal… Batman and Robin if you will… coming to save Montclair State University as if it is Gotham City under attack. The duo accomplished a feat that no pair of players had ever reached as the now number 10 ranked Montclair State University women’s soccer team dominated John Jay from start to finish enroute to an 8-0 victory on Tuesday.
Cahill and Prendergast are now the only players in MSU women’s soccer history to record a double hat-trick in the same game, as Montclair keeps their undefeated streak going strong at 11-0 on the season and John Jay now drops to 4-2-2. When asked about how it feels to be a part of history, Cahill had this to say,
“It’s really cool, I was speechless over there when they told me, it’s awesome to be a part of that.”
Although the first 13 minutes of the game went scoreless, the Red Hawks were dominating possession with a hard press all game long. The first goal of the game came
on MSU’s third shot attempt as Lauren Ernst centerned the ball to the superstar Cahill who was able to bury the ball behind John Jay goalkeeper Alexa Pyatsky, for her first of three the afternoon.
Twelve minutes later came Prendergast’s first goal as she sent an absolute rocket from outside of the 18-yard box into the perfect spot to give MSU a 2-0 lead over John Jay. The press defense had been working like a charm all game, as MSU did not allow a single shot on goal the entire first half. Coach Naughter had this to say about his press-style defense, “the way we are asking them to play isn’t cool, it isn’t easy, it isn’t fun, but 11-0 is cool and 11-0 is fun, so it’s working.”
The first 5:16 of the second half was unreal for Montclair as the Red Hawks scored four goals in that time frame, with the first two being rockets from the foot of Aileen Cahill to give Montclair State a 4-0 lead. Later on, Kylie Predergast was able to score two goals only 48 seconds apart to complete her trick and the dual hat trick as well. One header,
and one strike inside the 6-yard box, two goals that occurred so quickly within each other, giving MSU the 6-0 lead with a ton of game time remaining.
The game got so out of hand, that starting goalkeeper Haley Martin was taken out of the game to get Julia Dellisanti and Willow Bradley some game action for the first time all season long.
The remaining two goals were scored by Niki Danz and Samantha Ondrush in the final minutes of the game.
This game pushed MSU’s record against John Jay to 3-0 all-time, with two of the games finishing with a score of 8-0 which is remarkable.
The Red Hawks next game will take place on Saturday at 1pm when they travel to Rowan.
