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Hayes' Finishing Touch Ignites Outburst For PHS Girls' Soccer
By Bill Alden
Princeton High soccer star Lisa Hayes has clearly set some high standards for herself.
After scoring a goal in the Little Tigers' 6-1 win over Hightstown on September 30 and then following that up with a hat trick as PHS cruised past Ewing a day later by the same 6-1 margin, Hayes maintained she wasn't all that satisfied with her overall play.
"I need improvement, I'm working on that," said Hayes, who has a team-high six goals for 4-1 PHS. "I need to get better in playing without the ball and supporting back when they're trying to feed it out of the box."
Hayes' finishing in front of the net, however, can't get much better. In the win over Ewing, she showed her skill and coolness as two of the goals came on precisely struck volleys while the other came on a breakaway in which Hayes dribbled up nearly half the field and calmly slid the ball past the Ewing goalie.
While the senior forward grinned as she contemplated her finishing prowess, she was quick to spread the credit for her productive day.
"It's really the team that supports you out there," explained Hayes. "They've got to get it forward."
PHS head coach Greg Hand doesn't shy away from giving Hayes plenty of credit for her scoring exploits. "Lisa has great composure," said Hand. "When she was in against the goalie today, it was wonderful to see that she has become such a mature player. It's really hard for high school players to check for a ball and hold it as long as possible to accomplish a specific thing. Lisa's developed that technique through a lot of hard work."
With his team having exploded for 12 goals in two games after having tallied just four in its first three outings, Hand agrees with Hayes that the offensive outburst was the product of the team playing together.
"We were just well focused on the idea that the better we all understand the team tactics, the better things will go for us," said Hand as he assessed the team's effort in the Ewing win which saw other goals coming from Claire Marchetta, Zoe Sarnak, and Jill Calicchio.
"We're coordinating our midfielders, trying to be more attentive to when we should support and when we should go forward. We're structuring the runs that the forwards are making and that's starting to pay off."
Hand believes that Hayes and her classmates have been the driving force behind the team's cohesion. "I would cite the whole senior group," maintained Hand, whose group of seniors includes Marchetta, Kia Anderson, Emily Hansen, Val Davison, Kate Denny, Amanda Sustak, and Katie Mann.
"Now that we're almost a month into the season, the guys who have been working hard since preseason are starting to play the way I think they had imagined. They've worked themselves into this spot."
As PHS looks forward to hosting Hopewell Valley on October 9, Hayes believes that things are falling in place for the Little Tigers.
"Everybody is getting it together," said Hayes. "We're starting to realize that we're a team and not individuals. Our practices have been more intense, more fun."
If the Little Tigers can build on that positive
attitude, they might collectively reach some high standards.
