Posted: Sep 27, 2018
Is this a major turning point of RCGC's men's soccer season? Head coach George Hobbins and second-year standout Paolo D'Alessandro sure hope so.
Following Thursday's easy 6-0 Garden State Athletic Conference win over visiting Cumberland County, the Roadrunners appear to be heading in a solid direction.
RCGC now has a 3-1-1 record in the team's most recent five games to improve its record to 5-5-1 overall. Six different players, including D'Alessandro, scored goals to spark the win over the Dukes.
But does this recent success mean the Roadrunners have improved enough as they head into a tough stretch of the regular season?
"We need to keep working harder -- we had some success today, but we have a lot of work ahead of us," said Hobbins, whose team advanced to the Region XIX title game last season. "We have some tough conference teacms waiting for us -- and we won't be handed anything."
D'Alessandro kick started the offense by scoring the game's first goal with 40:25 left in the opening half for a 1-0 lead. Andrew Sooy and Zach Bille added goals as the Runners raced to a 3-0 halftime lead.
"Our offense is picking up the pace and I thought we played well today," said D'Alessandro. "There's always room for improvement, but today was a step in the right direction."
The home team capped off the scoring with goals by Collin Madden, Robert Norton and Nick Passeri. Goalkeeper NikAnagnou collected the shutout in nets.
The Roadrunners next host Middlesex County on Saturday in a 12 noon start.