FINISHING TOUCH: Princeton Day School girls’ soccer player Hannah Bunce chases down the ball in recent action. Last Friday, sophomore Bunce scored the game-winning goal as PDS rallied to beat Germantown Academy (Pa.) 3-2. The Panthers, who topped Blair 3-1 on Saturday to improve to 5-2-1, play at Lawrenceville on October 2 before hosting Montclair Kimberley on October 6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Hannah Bunce wasn’t fazed as the Princeton Day School girls’ soccer team fell behind twice in the first half against visiting Germantown Academy (Pa.) last Friday.

“We definitely knew that they were going to be a tough challenge,” said sophomore Bunce, reflecting on the contest which saw PDS trailing 1-0 and 2-1.

“We focused. We worked hard, we kept going and we stayed positive and the next thing you know we were banging in one goal after another.”

The Panthers tied the game at 2-2 late in the first half and then Bunce banged in the biggest goal of the afternoon, tallying the game-winner with 3:02 left in regulation as PDS pulled out a 3-2 victory.

“I knew a goal would come,” said Bunce. “We kept working, we just had to be patient. I was a little nervous when the ball came to me. I just took a whack at it. I was thinking don’t miss.”

With a high school season under her belt, Bunce feels less nervous on the field this fall.

“As a freshman, I lacked a lot of confidence playing on varsity,” said Bunce.

“This year, I am a little more confident on the field, I know my place and the older girls help out with that.”

PDS head coach Pat Trombetta believes the dramatic win over Germantown should be a confidence builder for his squad. “We didn’t play a great first half but what we did is battled,” said Trombetta.

“We came from behind 1-0 and 2-1. At halftime we made a couple of adjustments. For us as a team, this is a special win because we needed a win against a real high caliber team to give them a boost of confidence. This goes a long way.”

Trombetta is seeing more confident play from Bunce. “We talked about crash the net, crash the net, and that’s how we won the game with a girl crashing the net,” said Trombetta, who also got goals from Abby Atkeson and Alexa Soltesz in the victory.

“We saw that keeper coming off her line a lot. She was very aggressive so we were hoping that we were going to beat her on a couple of those. Hannah was in the right place at the right time there, crashing the net. We moved Hannah from outside mid to up top this year; she is creating some opportunities. She has a left foot cannon on her. She takes the corner kick from that one side of the field as well and some of our free kicks. She has come along, she has adjusted to this new position. She is doing a great job.”

Freshman goalie Grace Barbara did a great job for the Panthers against Germantown, making 10 saves, including some leaping stops and a full-out dive late in regulation to deny Germantown. “Grace kept us in the game, she had a fantastic game,” asserted Trombetta.

In addition to scoring the first PDS goal of the afternoon, sophomore Abby Atkeson gave the Panther defense a big lift.

“We knew that No. 1 was a special player for them; she was the playmaker and she was beating us left and right in the first half,” said Trombetta.

“We put Abby on her and she did a great job of shutting her down. She blanketed her for the rest of the game. I think that made a big difference.”

In recent games, the PDS attack has been making a big difference. “All along we have been getting the opportunities but we haven’t been finishing but now we got four goals in the Peddie game and three goals in the Germantown Academy game,” said Trombetta, whose team took another step forward last Saturday, beating Blair 3-1 with a pair of goals by Alexa Soltesz and one by Allison Klei to improve to 5-2-1.

“I think things are starting to come together on the offensive end. Now we are starting to play as a team and finish our chances.”

Bunce, for her part, believes the win over Germantown is proof that things are coming together for the Panthers.

“We are getting our thing going,” said Bunce. “It was definitely a confidence builder; they were a good team.”