By Jim Hintelmann
COLS NECK – A year ago, the Colts Neck’s girls soccer team dropped a 4-0 decision to Northern Highlands in the NJSIAA Group III championship game, but this year was a different story with the Cougars celebrating their first- ever state championship with a 1-0 revenge win several weeks ago.
The win was noteworthy because Northern Highlands had been ranked No. 1 in the nation by both the USA Today/NSCAA Super 25 and the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Fab 50 High School rankings. Colts Neck finished the season No. 6 in the USA Today/NSCAA poll and No. 5 in the Top Drawer Poll.
“Bridget King missed that game because of a concussion so we decided on a defensive brand of soccer,” said Colts Neck Dave Phillips, now in his seventh year as head coach of the Cougars. “We wanted to counter attack any time we had a chance.
“After losing last year, we definitely had some goals about getting back to the state finals and we did it,” said Phillips.
“We were confident going into the season because we had a lot of players back from last year,” said Phillips. “This was our best team in my 17 years here. I was an assistant coach for 10 years.”
Frankie Tagliaferri scored the lone goal in the Northern Highlands game and was the team’s leading scorer with 28 goals and 14 assists. Bridget King was next with 24 goals and 12 assists.
Sophomore goalie Lauren Feaster and Amanda Visci led the tough Colts Neck defense with Feaster registering a school record 18 shutouts.
The Cougars finished 24-0-1 with the lone blemish being a 1-1 tie against Red Bank Catholic. It won the B Division North and Shore Conference championships.
“We had several starters out in the RBC game,” said Phillips, “but we still achieved all of our goals. We beat Freehold Township to win the conference title.”
Colts Neck had only three senior starters, but all three of them were. NCAA Division I players.
