Last November, Ashley Maziarz blasted in a free kick from about 30 yards out in the first half to give the Hun School girls’ soccer team a 1-0 lead over Pennington in the state Prep A title game.

Maziarz’s thunderbolt helped spark Hun to a 2-0 victory over Pennington, snapping its 11-year title streak.

When the rivals met last week for the first time since that historic contest, Kendall Dandridge did her best Maziarz imitation.

With the September 29 game locked in a scoreless stalemate, Hun sophomore defender Dandridge took a pass from Jess Johnson at almost the same spot as Maziarz’s kick and volleyed it into the back of the net to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

“I heard my coach (Joanna Hallac) say on the sideline to Jess (Johnson), pass it over to me,” said Dandridge. “We usually don’t do that play, it just doesn’t seem to work. We tried it and I thought I would give it a shot and fire it as hard as I could at the goal. I just wanted to get it over the goalie’s head.”

With one season of high school soccer under her belt, Dandridge is looking to be more of a force at both ends of the field this fall.

“It is definitely a goal of mine, even outside Hun,” said Dandridge. “I play club and my coaches have been telling me to try to get more offensive minded as well.”

Dandridge’s strike, though, proved to be Hun’s only score as the Raiders fell 2-1 to an inspired Pennington squad.

“Coming off last year, we knew that this team was going to be on our backs,” said Dandridge.

“We are their first target and they are trying to win their title back. We wanted to come out as strong as we possibly could and I think we left it all out there on the field. We worked hard, we worked together. We definitely improved from the beginning of the season so I think we are on the way to progress.”

Dandridge was busy all over the field as she marked Pennington freshman star Jaydin Avery.

“I had to be on her the whole game, that was definitely a challenge,” said Dandridge.

Hun head coach Joanna Hallac liked the way her team battled all game long against Pennington.

“Both teams fought hard until the end,” said Hallac. “I think it was definitely an improvement in the intensity level and in the way we were playing together and combining. We did a lot of really nice things today and we just got a little unlucky. We had a couple of mental lapses, just brief ones, but that is all it takes sometimes.”

Dandridge’s tally brought back some really nice memories for Hallac. “We were all thinking about Ashley on the bench,” said Hallac.

“I was saying to Jess, ‘see Kendall, see Kendall.’ They weren’t stepping in on her and I said might as well because she can nail the ball from out there. She is getting more involved and that is what I was really hoping to see.”

In Hallac’s view, Dandridge also stepped up on defense as she marked Pennington star Avery.

“I thought she did a really nice job of containing Jaydin,” added Hallac. “She is a tough player, she has got unbelievable speed. I thought Kendall did a great job of matching up with her. Hopefully we will get to see them again and use what we learned today going forward.”

In the loss to Pennington, Hun got some great work from a number of players including junior midfielder Abby Gray, junior defender Julia Salerno, and senior co-captain Johnson.

“I thought Abby Gray had a nice game today; I think Julia Salerno had a nice game,” said Hallac.

“Jess had a nice, consistent game. I think she is always confident but she had a couple of games that were not her usual standard, although still a high level, but I thought this was a confidence builder for her.”

Freshman goalie Leah Sutphen also performed at a high level. “Leah Sutphen had a superb game and made some truly great saves,” asserted Hallac. “It was her first start and she really stepped up and did a great job.”

With Hun off to a shaky start, Hallac is looking for her team to step things up.

“We have had a tough schedule, we don’t have a lot of easy ones,” said Hallac, whose team fell 2-0 to Germantown Academy (Pa.) last Thursday to drop to 1-4 and plays at the Blair Academy on October 10 before hosting East Brunswick on October 13.

“I think it is just making sure we are staying positive and not dwelling on the losses as much as learning from where we fell a little short and just working hard in practice to improve.”

Dandridge, for her part, is determined to be a positive force for the Raiders.

“I just need to take more of a leadership role and I am pretty confident about that,” said Dandridge.

“Trying to figure things out without the players we had last year is definitely a battle.”