Girls Soccer: Resurgent Colonia tops Bishop Ahr

EDISON – Colonia High School junior Adrianna Munoz said she had chills after the Patriots’ 2-1 victory over Bishop Ahr on Tuesday, but it had nothing to do with the dreary and rainy weather that she was enduring in her soccer shorts and jersey top.

Coming off six straight seasons without a final record above .500, the Patriots have become somewhat of an afterthought in the Greater Middlesex Conference. That was until last fall when Colonia stormed to the GMC Tournament quarterfinals as the 19th seed with a victory over third-seeded Bishop Ahr on penalty kicks in the third round.

With Tuesday’s victory, the Patriots are now 5-2 and are primed to do quite a bit of damage within the division and county tournament.

“People doubting us helped,” Munoz said. “They were like, ‘It’s a surprise Colonia is here,’ so that pushed us to work harder and prove to people that it’s not just a fluke. We’re meant to be here.”

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The Patriots wasted no time taking the lead as Munoz scored a goal in the opening minutes of the game. Add another goal 15 minutes later by sophomore Skylar Galez off a corner kick, and the Patriots amassed a resounding 2-0 lead.

With the scenarios eerily resembling last season’s upset against the Trojans, the Patriots opened the game with the confidence of a perennial championship team.

“It helped us a lot,” Galvez said. “It’s this field with these same conditions as last year.”

The Trojans came out of the gates in the second half on fire, and senior Sarah Glazewski cut the deficit to 2-1 about 10 minutes into the final frame with a goal. A barrage of quality shots peppered the Colonia defense for the remainder of the game, but the unit thwarted everything else that came it’s way.

Anchored by impressive senior goalkeeper Kelly Silva, the backline is full of new players, but has also been the biggest key to Colonia’s early success. The Patriots gradated three starting defenders from last year, but center back and captain Seaerra Michalsky keeps things together while new outside defenders Angela Covert and Julie Santos have excelled despite limited varsity experience.

“Kelly Silva was all-conference last year, and I can’t see a reason why she won’t be again this year,” Colonia coach Stephen Carew said. “It’s hard to get recognition as a center back because it’s not a glorifying position, but we really build around Seaerra Michalsky, and the defense rallies around her.”

It’s been a slow rebuilding process with the last winning season coming in 2011, but the Patriots are finally seeing some quality returns from the process.

“It’s something we’ve been putting in place for the last couple years, and having that run at the end of last season had a lot to do with the future we’re trying to build,” Carew said. “It comes down to the girls buying into it. We’ve got some big wins and it shows we can play with the top teams in the conference. We’re getting results to show for it, and it feels good.”

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