Freehold Township Girls Soccer Advances to Group 4 Title Game

November 9, 2022

After winning the Central Jersey, Group 4 title last weekend, the Freehold Township girls soccer teams won their Group 4 semifinal matchup to advance to the overall Group 4 title game with a 3-0 win Tuesday over Eastern at Howell High School.

The Patriots improved to 20-1 overall this season.

Coming into the game, Freehold looked to get back to the finals and they did not disappoint. Freehold Township was dominant with defense and offense on both sides of the ball against Eastern. The defense for Freehold did not give up easy shots and made it tough on the pitch.

Eastern had trouble with spacing, couldn't get great looks on the ball when passing on the cross and wasn't attacking enough to put pressure on Freehold's defense. Eastern only had two shots on goal which was a big difference in the game for them. Ava Clark who is the goalie for Eastern was on her feet staying alert as she made a total of seven saves and gave up three goals. One positive for eastern was that they were able to make some big clears against Freehold Township which could have been more goals.

Freehold Township was able to put the pressure from the start against Eastern as they were more aggressive on the attack, had nice spacing, setting up nice passes on the cross with great on ball to score those three total goals. The defense had a game plan trapping Eastern's offense, playing back, getting easy clears and being organized. Freehold got multiple corner kicks in their favor making smart key plays to make that happen.

Hailey Santiago who is a junior for Freehold Township gives them momentum in the first half at the 12:32 mark scoring her 23rd goal of the season and makes it 1-0 against Eastern. Hailey has been on a hot streak lately scoring goals making a huge impact during this run for Freehold. Hailey keeps improving every season and it will be fun to watch her play with Cassidy Corcione when she comes back next season.

In the second half Freehold Township's offense continued to attack on the pitch and finding open teammates. Princeton commit Kayla Wong who got the nice assist to help Hailey score the first goal ended up scoring the other two goals for Freehold to make it 3-0 against Eastern in the second half. With those two goals Kayla Wong aka Princeton legend now has 10 goals on the season as she continues to improve also. The second goal was from 40 yards from her which was a bullet.

Ashley Moore who is a sophomore goalie for Freehold Township had an amazing game tonight pitching a shutout and making big saves in the game. The defense backed up Ashley in a huge way and they worked as a unit. She is also having a strong season with a total of 62 saves that helped the team get to this point. Freehold played a complete soccer game with not that many mistakes and was locked in from the start.