SEEING RED: Princeton High field hockey star Georgia McLean heads up the field last Thursday as fourth-seeded PHS faced eighth-seeded Lawrenceville in the semifinals of the Mercer County Tournament. Senior midfielder McLean and the Little Tigers fell behind 3-0 midway through the first half and couldn’t dig out of that hole as they lost 6-0  to the Big Red, the eventual county champion. The Little Tigers, who moved to 13-3-1 with the loss, will host Freehold on October 27 and play at Pennington on October 29 before starting action in the state tournament. PHS is seeded second in the North 2, Group 4 sectional and is slated to host a second-round contest on October 31. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Georgia McLean liked the way things were going early on as the fourth-seeded Princeton High field hockey team battled eighth-seeded Lawrenceville last Thursday evening in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals.

“I felt like we were really ready for the game,” said PHS senior midfielder McLean. “Both teams came out really strong.”

Through 12 minutes, the teams were locked in a scoreless stalemate in the contest which took place under the lights at the Mercer County Community College. But showing its strength on the ball, Lawrenceville scored with 17:54 left in the half and added two more tallies in the next five minutes to take a 3-0 lead and seize the momentum.

“I think they had possession and we are used to getting possession,” said McLean. “That is definitely something that we are going to work on in the future.”

The Big Red added another goal to make it 4-0 at half and then added two goals in the last 7:05 of regulation as they earned a 6-0 victory.

While McLean was disappointed by the result, she was proud of the way the Little Tigers battled in the second half.

“The second half, we played up,” said McLean. “I think every single player on our team has so much heart from Jamaica Ponder in the back to Avery Peterson up front, we all play really hard. I know we are going to take this loss not as a negative but as a positive. As our coach (Heather Serverson) always says, win or learn, and we definitely are going to learn in this situation.”

The gritty McLean looks to show heart all over the field from her midfield position.

“I really love to play all different positions; I think that is what is great about field hockey is when you are on the field, you can do anything,” said McLean, who also stars for the PHS girls’ lacrosse team.

“You can play defense and suddenly you are on offense; it is really a fun game like that.”

Making it back to the MCT semis was a fun experience for McLean. “I am really proud of the team for making it to the semifinals; we have played in the semifinals the past four years,” said McLean.

“I remember when I was a freshman we played against Hopewell and that was a tough loss as well. We have such great team chemistry. I think that is how we are really going to learn from this; we are going to come together and we are not going to push each other apart.”

In McLean’s view, PHS has what it takes to make a push in the state tourney with the Little Tigers seeded second in the North 2, Group 4 sectional and slated to host a second-round contest on October 31.

“The focus going into that is to come out stronger than we did before and with a little bit more intensity,” said McLean.

“We call it animalistic intensity. We have this motto called ‘beasts not girls,’ and we are definitely going to come out as beasts this time.”