(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: GOING OUT WITH A BANG: Princeton Day School senior midfielder Alexa Maher controls the ball in action earlier this season. Last Wednesday, Maher, the only senior on the team, scored two goals in her final game at PDS as the Panthers fell 5-2 at Lawrenceville in the state Prep A semifinals. The Panthers finished the season with a 10-8-1 record.

Senior Star Maher Comes Up Big in Finale; but PDS Girls’ Soccer Falls Short in Preps

Bill Alden

Alexa Maher had been waiting for this moment for three years.

As the senior midfielder for the Princeton Day School girls’ soccer team hit the field last Wednesday at Lawrenceville for the state Prep A semis, her mind went back to 2004.

“The last time we were in the semis was when I was a freshman so it’s really exciting,” said Maher. “We have a great group of girls and I thought we could really pull through with a win today.”

Maher, the lone senior on the PDS squad, did her best to help the Panthers pull through, scoring the first and last goals of the contest. The Big Red, however, scored five unanswered goals in between Maher’s tallies to cruise to a 5-2 win.

In reflecting on what turned out to be her final high school game, Maher was encouraged by how things started off for the Panthers.

“That was great; I thought it was going to be our day,” said Maher, referring to her goals which came on a nice feed by freshman star Allie Reilly. “They missed some great opportunities back there and everything was going our way for the first 15 or 20 minutes.”

The tide, though, turned against PDS when star junior defender Erin Cook had to leave the game late in the first half due to an injured ankle and Lawrenceville scored two goals to grab the lead.

“Our defense suffered a lot from that,” said Maher, referring to Cook’s injury. “Erin is one of the top defenders on the team.”

The Big Red took advantage of Cook’s absence by controlling possession for most of the second half and scoring three goals in a 10-minute stretch in the middle of the period to break the game open.

Maher wasn’t about to go down gently as she scored on a brilliant free kick with 9:53 remaining to end the scoring.

“It’s nice to score the last goal in the last game in your senior year,” said Maher. “Everyone kept fighting to the end which was good. They really didn’t want it to be our last game.”

For Maher, that fighting spirit didn’t come as a surprise considering how far the young team came this fall.

“We really grew a lot,” asserted Maher. “In the beginning of the season, it was hard. Once we got together and found out where everyone played, we really started playing as one.”

PDS coach Pat Trombetta knew he was lucky to have Maher as his one senior.

“She is a player that played every minute for us the whole season,” said Trombetta, whose team finished the year with a 10-8-1 record.

“She never wants to come out of the game. I got her out of the game today with seconds remaining to get her some acknowledgment and she got mad at me. When I explained to her what I was doing, she understood.”

In Trombetta’s view, Maher played a key role in getting her younger teammates to understand what was required to succeed at the high school level.

“She’s been a starter for four years here,” added Trombetta. “She has been tremendous with the girls as a mentor, going through the battles in the county and state tournaments. She can reflect back and give all that insight to the girls; that helped tremendously through the season.”

PDS gained from the hard lessons they got this fall. “It’s been a great season,” asserted Trombetta.

“We started out 0-3 in preseason. We played some tough teams and they beat us up. We made some adjustments and got stronger as the year went on. We had a competitive schedule which helped us a lot. We were in every game except the Pennington game. Today, I think it would have been a closer battle if we had had Erin the whole 80 minutes.”

Trombetta is looking forward to the battles ahead in next season. “I told the girls I’m excited about what we have here,” said Trombetta.

“We made it to the semis and based on what you did this year, you should be excited about everyone coming back. You all have a year under your belts. We all know what to expect. It was a transition year; I think they adjusted well. They know what to expect from me and I know what I have.”

Maher, for her part, was proud to have helped ease that adjustment. “It was definitely one of my responsibilities to help them because more than half our team had never played in high school before,” said Maher.

“They didn’t know what to expect and it was a learning experience they had to go through.”

And those young players were certainly lucky to have a teacher like Maher.

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