Fall 2006 Championship Game

Mid November has come to be known for a proliferation of leaves to rake, dwindling sun light, heated football rivalries and in the last three years exciting soccer playoff games between the Scotch Plains Blue Sharks U14 Girls intercounty team and Rahway.

The teams, which both entered the game unbeaten, had split their previous two plsyoff meetings making the November 18 matchup, won by the Sharks 2-1 as a rubber match between the squads, Like the previous two games, the 2006 rendition was also played at Rahway’s downtrodden field and contained many players who had participated in all three games.

Danielle Schweizer, one of the few Sharks who had not played the past two years, scored a goal in each half, the second on a brilliant breakaway midway through the second half. Schwiezer took a perfect through pass from Lauren Buckley and with a marksmen’s precision beat the goalie from twenty yards.

Schweizer had opened the scoring in the first half when she rebounded Emily Cohen’s shot that had hit the post. Rahway tied the score which remained knotted through the end of the first half.

Melissa McKenna was solid in goal as the Sharks took their first title in the U14 division after previously winning one in U12.

Also starring were Lauren Berk Erin Brown Amanda Rodriguez Jessica DiGiacomo Alyssa Young Rebecca DiGiacomo, Sarah Weber, Emma Kaplan, Sarah Lazarus, Toni Ann Capece and Kara Gaynor.