Hunterdon Central girls soccer tops Toms River North in Group IV semifinals

PENNINGTON - The juggernaut that is the Hunterdon Central High School girls soccer team can't be stopped.

The Red Devils advanced to the NJSIAA Group IV final for the first time in two years with a 4-0 victory over Toms River North on Tuesday night at Hopewell Valley High School.

"I think we stayed really wide, which stretched out the field because it is a big field to begin with, so I think that helped give us an advantage," Hunterdon Central's Brie Pavol said. "I think we stuck together, communicated well, and I think we just have really good team chemistry, which helped us get this win."

Hunterdon Central will face Ridge in the final on Saturday at Kean University.

Four different players scored for Hunterdon Central and its defense posted its 10th shutout of the season as the Red Devils improved to 20-1-1. For the Mariners, it was only the third time this season they had been shut out.

"The expectation was to win, it just didn't go our way," Toms River North coach Tom Miller said. "They're a good quality team, everybody is quality team at this point, they're good and I thought we were doing well for awhile there."

It took awhile for Hunterdon Central to get rolling, but with 10:27 remaining in the first half, freshman Corinna Zullo took a pass from junior Samantha Senatore and laced a shot past Mariners goalie Ashley Tutzauer for the 1-0 lead.

With 2:26 left before the half, the Red Devils struck again as senior Brie Pavol scored on a free kick for a 2-0 lead.

"We always come in wanting to play our best, we know if you make it to the state semifinals you have to be a good team so we just prepared for the best and played our game," Hunterdon Central's Luciana Zullo said.

Hunterdon Central's momentum kept up in the second half, as Luciana Zullo scored just six minutes in on a rebound Tutzauer couldn't corral, which gave the Red Devils a commanding 3-0 lead.

They weren't done though. Less than two minutes later Luciana Zullo sent a pass to senior Mackenzie Mullins, who didn't waste her shot and the Red Devils led 4-0.

"Shutout, credit to our defense, they played awesome and we expect everything out of them and that's what we got," Zullo said. "I think we played the type of soccer that we know how to play, they play a different style of soccer than us, so we did a good job sticking to how we play, one-two touch, on the ground."

Two years ago, Hunterdon Central fell in the Group IV final to Montclair 2-1, but this time around, with the season this team has had, the Red Devils are looking for a state title.

"It's been our best season all four years we've been here, so we just want to keep that going," Zullo said.

For Toms River North (20-3), it was the first appearance in a Group semifinal as the Mariners won the sectional title for the first time in program history.

"The season has been great, first time we won the section, so that was great, so overall it was very good," Miller said. "I told the girls at the beginning of the season I think we can play with anybody, we had a tough game here today but they're supposed to be one of the best teams around. We gave it a go, it didn't happen and we bring a lot of people back and we have a lot of good seniors so we'll see what happens."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego