Ramirez leads Pingry girls soccer over North Hunterdon

ANNANDALE - The Pingry School's girls soccer team feels it can compete with any team that steps foot onto the pitch, regardless of where the match is taking place.

The Big Blue was scheduled to meet North Hunterdon (8-4) at home on Thursday, but Pingry (9-1) agreed to square off against the Lions on their home turf after North Hunterdon reported their team was having transportation issues.

While the scenery was different for No. 5 Pingry, the result was familiar, as the Big Blue won its ninth-consecutive game in a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over No. 10 North Hunterdon in a Courier News Top 10 showdown.

READ: COURIER NEWS GIRLS SOCCER TOP 10

Led by Natalia Ramirez, who finished with two goals and two assists, the speedy sophomore scored the equalizer to make it 1-1 midway through the first half, and then scored her second goal of the match in the 43rd minute, giving the Big Blue a lead it would hold the rest of the game.

“North Hunterdon came out really hard,” Pingry coach Lauren Molinaro said. “For the first 20 minutes of the game it was a battle. We went down 1-0 and had to really sort it out.”

North Hunterdon junior Madeline Wolf put the Lions ahead 1-0 in the 13th minute of the match as she headed in a ball that sailed over Big Blue goalkeeper Gabby Obregon’s outstretched arm. Down 1-0, the Pingry offense applied pressure and was awarded a corner kick just 14 minutes after the opening goal.

Sophomore Emma Lombardo lined up the corner kick and blooped it over the North Hunterdon goalkeeper. With the back post wide open, Ramirez was able to find the ball in the scrum and place it in the back of the net.

MORE: GIRLS SOCCER ROUNDUP FOR OCT. 13

Shortly after, North Hunterdon’s Wolf nearly scored her second goal as she hit the left post.

Both defenses played well in the first half, but in the second half the Big Blue offense took control of the game. Just three minutes into the second half, Ramirez put Pingry ahead as she was able to outpace the Lions defender to the ball that Cam Campbell placed right in front of the goalkeeper from 40-yards out.

“I just used my speed to get around the defender,” said Ramirez, who leads Pingry with 13 goals. “I just got it and placed it on the opposite side of the goal."

Three minutes later, Pingry was able to add an insurance goal, and this time it was Ramirez who found Lombardo for the score.

Trailing 3-1, North Hunterdon would get the lead back down to one late in regulation as freshman Rebecca Fluchel rocketed one in from well outside the box. The momentum was short lived as Pingry’s Pilla Madison put one in the back of the net off of another assist by Ramirez.

With Pingry’s lead scorer playing at the top of her game, Molinaro and the rest of the team are confident heading into Saturday’s matchup against Hillsborough in the quarterfinals of the Somerset County Tournament. Pingry defeated Hillsborough earlier this season, 4-2, but Molinaro knows that anything can occur in the county tournament.

“A lot of times we create these ideas of how the game is going to go in our head because we beat them already,” Molinaro said. “Our biggest obstacle heading into Saturday is erasing that game from our memory and making sure that we bring it from minute one. The pitch doesn’t matter. Every game, no matter what the circumstances are, rain or shine, sun in our eyes, field turf verses regular grass, we are in control of our own destiny.”