WOMEN’S SOCCER HAS AN ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE HAT TRICK ON SENIOR NIGHT.
By Tommy Truberg
The Montclair State Women’s soccer team absolutely dominated William Paterson in a win with a score of 3-0. Kylie Prendergast put on a clinic in tonight’s game with not 1, not 2, but 3 goals. Hat tricks are extremely rare for most soccer players and almost never happen, but for Kylie, this isn’t her first time. Earlier in the season Kylie and her teammate Aileen Cahill put up a pair of hat tricks as the Redhawks beat John Jay in dominating fashion. Tonight Kylie racks up her second hat trick of the season, and she now has 10 goals on the season.
Scoring hat tricks is impressive within itself, but to score a hat trick in one half is almost unheard of. The first half was tight going into halftime with a score of 0-0. In the second half, Kylie Prendergast put on a show scoring all 3 goals herself. One of the goals was unassisted, one assisted by Kerri Driscoll, and another assisted by Emmi DeNovellis.
The Redhawks dominated William Paterson in every single aspect of the game. Montclair led the shots category with a whooping 22 shots to William Paterson’s 3 shots. Shots on goal were also led by Montclair but was a little tighter as the Redhawks had 8 and the pioneers had 2.
The offense was impressive for the Redhawks, but defensively is where they shine. Watching the game felt as though the red hawks had possession of the ball for 75% of the match and each time the pioneers got a glimpse of possession the red hawks swarmed them and took it right back. Coach Patrick Naughter has done an outstanding job at coaching these women to press, and press, and press. The red hawks are relentless and force opposing teams to turn the ball over often.
What a win on a senior night! The Montclair State Redhawks were celebrating 7 seniors in tonight’s match. One of those seniors is goalkeeper Haley Martin who has had an outstanding season. Haley has 37 saves on the season and tonight she pitched the 14th shutout of her career! 37 saves is very impressive, but a part of Haley’s game that can’t be put down in stats is her communication. For 90 minutes a game Haley uses her strong voice to communicate with her team and help put them all in the right positions. There isn’t a minute where you don’t hear her leading her team in the right direction.
With 2 games left in the regular season, the Redhawks can’t help but look forward to what’s ahead in the playoffs. In the NJAC Rowan leads the conference with a 6-0-1 record in conference games. The Redhawks aren’t far behind in 2nd place with a record of 6-1 in conference games only losing to Rowan. And in 3rd place is TCNJ with a conference record of 5-1-1.
The NJAC is looking for an exciting finish with Rowan beating Montclair, Montclair beating TCNJ, and Rowan tieing with TCNJ these playoffs can go anyone’s way!
