Lawrence Hamnett U12 Blazers Defeat Robbinsville, Arjahz

The Lawrence Hamnett U12 Blazers bounced back from their semi-final loss to the Ironbound SC Fever in the NJ State Cup National Championship Series with two strong wins against the Robbinsville Raptors and the Arjahz SA Cougars, moving to 6-2 on the season.

Connor Monaghan led the Blazers early in their 6-0 win against the Robbinsville Raptors, notching two goals in transition off of assists from Ryan Sargent and Robbie Lynch. Behind unselfish ball movement and consistent penetrating wide play, the Blazers dominated possession throughout the afternoon and generated numerous scoring chances. 

They were led by solid, creative mid-field playfrom Luke Bidle, Teddy Gutman, and Sami Khayyat. A quick, heads-up thrown outlet pass from goalkeeper Alex Hatfield to Romulo Lopez created the third goal of the day, after Lopez dribbled into space and drilled it into the upper left corner. Eddie Estrada added to the Blazers 1st half tally with a head-ball off the post and into the back of the net. Hatfield started the Blazers’ 5th goal in the defensive end, throught one-on-one defensive technique in the defensive 18 yard box. After winning the ball, Hatfield played the ball wide to Jude Bidle, who slotted a thru pass to an on-running Vinnie Giangrasso and he finished it into the lower corner. The final goal of the afternoon for the Blazers came off a breakaway by Ryan Sargent, who, after beating the last defender, clinically finished a low left-footed shot into the corner.

The Blazers continued their goal scoring ways against the Arjahz SA Cougars notching a 6-2 victory. Abhyan Jaikishen started the scoring by burying a loose ball off of a corner kick in the Cougars’ 6-yard box. Giangrasso notched his second goal of the weekend off of a breakaway and excellent finish into the lower corner.  Jude Bidle also earned his second assist of the weekend after winning the ball in the Cougars’ defensive end and slotting it to Estrada, who rocketed a one-time shot into the corner from outside the 18-yard box.  

The Blazers were led in the 2nd half by Jason Lobben, who took advantage of space and rocketed two shots into the back of the net from distance.  The final Blazers’ goal of the day came from Lopez after Jaikishen played him wide into space and switched the point of attack. Luke Okupski held strong in the goal during the second half calmly stemming several attacking chances by the Cougars. At the same time, Okupski initiated several Blazers’ attacking transitions through composed and quick outlet play. 

The Blazers finish their regular season over the two Sundays with home games at the Zimmer Complex against West Orange Napoli and Perth Amboy YSA Pumas.