Girls Soccer: Monroe impresses, blanks Edison

MONROE TOWNSHIP – Senior “defender” Tayler Muce is a bit of a Renaissance woman.

One of the captains on the Monroe High School girls soccer team, Muce possesses many talents. She can defend, she can score, she glides like a gazelle across the field with her long legs and is one of the leaders on an improving Monroe team.

Muce is listed as a defender on the Monroe roster, but you’ll more likely to see her roaming ever inch of the field.

“Where (coach) needs me, I’ll go, I’m up for any challenge,” Muce said. “If we need to score, I can add scoring. I started at center mid this season, but I dropped back because we needed that extra person to lock it up. I’m all over the place.”

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Muce covered quite a bit of ground on Wednesday afternoon, scoring two goals and leading Monroe to a dominant 4-0 victory over Edison.

Traveling from the back line, Muce found herself in front of the goal about seven minutes into the game and scored to give the Falcons (4-3) a 1-0 lead. After a Hannah Van Dusen goal, Muce then used her head to knock a ball into the back of the net off a corner kick from Kylie Fernandes with just 2:27 left in the first half, extending the Monroe lead to 3-0.

She hadn’t scored a goal prior to Wednesday, but Muce proved the depth of her talent with the offensive explosion.

“She’s a versatile player, and I was really talking about her accolades last year because she is the driving force of the team,” Monroe coach Peter Ruckdeschel said. “There are plenty of girls who have stepped up, and she’s one of them. She’s key.”

Muce is a part of a core of talented returning players and captains. Forward Gennyka Liebenthal was inches away on multiple occasions from scoring her fourth goal of the season, midfielder Paige Gandy has three assists this season and keeps everything together while goalkeeper Jennifer Horn made one spectacular save after another on Wednesday.

As evidenced by their crisp and flawless passing, the Falcons, who only graduated six players from last season, have developed better chemistry and looked poised to improve upon last year’s 8-11-1 record.

“Last year we lacked chemistry, and I think this year that’s what we really tried building,” Muce said. “We know the talent we have, but we have to play every game like it’s the last game you’re going to play. Put your hearts on the field, and work your hardest.”

The Falcons played like a perennial winner with the confidence to match. With that, Monroe should be a dangerous team to face down the stretch.

"We’re running for the GMC title, we’re running for the Red Division title, and we’re running for the state title, we’re going for everything,” Muce said. “We’ve had some bad games, but we’re building from our mistakes, so we’ll see where we go from there.”

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