Kosa, Bears chasing down a milestone win

BY RICHARD JEROME
Staff Writer

This will be a memorable year for the perennially powerful East Brunswick High School girls soccer team.

With a 3-0 record thus far, the Bears are a virtual lock to pass their 500th victory under coach Lou Kosa, whose clubs have compiled a stunning 494-58 overall ledger.

“I always stress that it’s the team that has the victories, not me,” said Kosa.

This should be another formidable Bear contingent.

“We have pretty much all of our starters back, Kosa said. “Our strength is that we’re very balanced.”

Back at goalkeeper is a senior, Amanda Nagy, while another 12th-grader, Arielle Taggen is an excellent sweeper. Caroline Noppenberger, a three-year starter, is on defense.

“She’s one of our keys and one of our captains,” Kosa said.

Also on defense is quick junior Caitlin Westcott, with a rotation of three seniors at stopperback; Stephanie Blanar, a captain, Lauren Bolosin and Allie Lubcher.

In the midfield, junior Alison Riccio teams up with experienced sophomore Casey Caruso, who started as a frosh last year.

Another senior captain, Lauren Esposito, is a three-year letter-winner. Junior Kristie Lang is a striker, along with sophomore Jessica Campbell, who lettered last year.

Shannon Mastrogiovanni is another striker, and Morgan Brown, a freshman, is up front.

Helping out with the midfield are seniors Halli Goldman and Breanna Russo. A pair of sophomores, Alyssa Sotomayer and Kirsten Cash, back up Nagy in goal.

After knocking off Edison in their season-opener, the Bears improved to 2-0 on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Westfield. Lang and Blanar each scored goals for the Bears in this nonconference affair, while Nagy stopped 12 shots in net to record the shutout.

From there, the Bears knocked off J.P. Stevens by a 2-0 margin on Monday to get to 3-0 on the young season. Caruso and Lubcher scored within two minutes of each other in the first half, with Caruso’s goal a breakaway and Lubcher’s goal coming off a nice feed from Esposito.

Kosa, who is assisted by Brian Merrigan, leads the Bears against Hunterdon Central on Saturday.