Girls Soccer: Reyes sets assist record as Wardlaw-Hartridge routs Spotswood
EDISON – Mia Reyes may not lead her team in goals, but her fingerprints can be found on nearly every goal scored by the Wardlaw-Hartridge High School girls soccer team this season.
The junior midfielder tallied four assists to increase her career total to 41 and break the Wardlaw-Hartridge career record of 38 as Reyes and the Rams (7-7) rolled to a 6-1 victory over GMC Blue Division foe Spotswood (8-4) on Monday afternoon.
Reyes connected with sophomore Sofia Ambrosio for a goal less than two minutes into the game to tie the school record. She wasted no time breaking the record, tallying an assist less than two minutes later on a Jane Anderson-Schmitt goal.
“Coming into freshman year, I didn’t think I was going to be breaking anything,” Reyes said. “In the games leading up to this, my mom kept telling me three assists left, two assists left. It felt awesome when it went in, I was so happy.”
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Gaining a 2-0 lead within the first four minutes of the game, the Rams did not slow down as the first half progressed. Ambrosio scored her second of three goals halfway through the first frame, and then Reyes assisted freshman Amanda Jenkins about three minutes later to extend the Rams' lead to 4-0.
The Rams dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Spotswood on Sept. 21. Needless to say, Wardlaw-Hartridge had Monday’s game circled on its calendars ever since.
“We’ve been talking about it for the past few weeks,” Reyes said. “We were really frustrated how that game went, and we were mad at ourselves especially. We wanted to come out, play our game and put the ball in the net.”
After the excitement of Reyes’ record and the four-goal lead had dissipated, there was still a whole second half to play. Spotswood came out of the gates hot as senior Erin Thuring cut the deficit to 4-1 with a goal six minutes into the second half.
The Rams regrouped and suppressed the Spotswood comeback when Anderson-Schmitt scored her second goal of the game seven minutes later and Ambrosio netted her third, with Reyes recording the assist.
“We knew this was a proud team, they’re (last season’s) Blue Division champions, they’re well coached and we knew they were going to come out, and if nothing else, challenge hard,” Wardlaw-Hartridge coach Mike Romeo said. “When you’re up 4-0, it’s easy to get complacent, but we told them at halftime to be prepared for champions to come out. We came in like it was 0-0 at halftime.”
Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice can be reached at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @danny_logiudice.