SOCCER

Edison's Felicia Forsythe is HNT All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year

Daniel LoGiudice, @danny_logiudice
Edison's Felicia Forsythe is the HNT All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

Edison coach Christopher McKnight, who coached his first season with the girls squad in 2016, also wasn’t sure if 45 goals in one season was attainable. He also didn’t know exactly what he had in Forsythe.

READ: HNT/GMC ALL-AREA GIRLS SOCCER TEAMS

What he did know, however, was that he had a unique talent on his hands.

“I knew she was something special, I didn’t know how special, but she definitely surpassed my expectations,” McKnight said. “Having a player that sees the field like she does, she’s a once in a generation player, I feel.”

Forsythe, the 2016 Home News Tribune All-Area Girls Soccer Player of the Year, ultimately came up short of 100 career goals, but she came closer than perhaps anyone would have expected. She exploded for 39 goals in 2016 and finished with 94 for her career.

Ironically, Forsythe’s dominant fall campaign started off rather inauspiciously. Forsythe failed to score a single goal in her first two games. The scoreless streak didn’t last long as Forsythe exploded for 18 goals over her next five games, including a five-goal effort against North Brunswick.

“The first two games when I didn’t score any goals, I was like wow my 100 goals were kind of going away," Forsythe said. "Then I started scoring four, five goals a game, and I started to think that this could actually happen."

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Edison's Felicia Forsythe (left) battles with Dunellen's Alison McGrath during their GMC Tournament game on Oct. 20, 2016.

The highlight for Edison was defeating White Division rival Sayreville three times during the season, including a 1-0 road victory in the first round of the Central Group IV Tournament, where Forsythe scored 1:02 into the game.

Forsythe also recorded a hat trick in each of Edison’s previous two games against Sayreville. In the first game in September, Forsythe shook a defender and scored on a breakaway one minute into overtime to clinch the victory for the Eagles.

“Beating Sayreville, especially three times, is probably one of the best moments of my career,” Forsythe said. “They were talking so much before the game, even people not on the team, saying we weren’t going to win and we shouldn’t get our hopes up. To win on their home turf was such a great feeling.”

She was perhaps her most dangerous on breakaways, but Forsythe can score from pretty much anywhere on the field. In a game against Colonia early in the season, struck a laser from about 45 yards out that, to the surprise of McKnight and probably most others, got past the goalkeeper.

“There were a couple goals where between the time she shot it and when it went in the net, I was angry at her for taking a shot from there, whether it was from 45 yards out or she was pinned at the end line,” McKnight said. “Then a second later it would be in the back of the net, and I’d be eating crow.”

Forsythe possesses incredible vision on the field and has a natural inclination for the minutia of the game, so much so that McKnight sometimes found it unnecessary to speak with her about certain in-game strategies.

“There were certain games where I wouldn’t really have to coach her, she would just go out there and know exactly what she had to do and know where she had to be,” McKnight said. “She would know exactly what I saw in the defense before I talked to the team about it, and she would adjust accordingly”

With graduation approaching, Forsythe is still undecided where she will play soccer in the fall. She’s looked at a few local east coast colleges, but a final decision has yet to be made.

Forsythe leaves the Edison girls soccer program hoping she made an impact. Clearly, she did just that.

“I walk in the hallway and people will say hi to me, and I don’t even know who they are,” Forsythe said. “I think I made a mark. Hopefully people will remember me.”

Staff Writer Daniel LoGiudice can be reached at dlogiudice@gannettnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @danny_logiudice.