TAYLOR MADE: Princeton High girls’ soccer player Taylor Lis heads upfield in recent action. Last Friday, junior midfielder Lis contributed four assists as PHS defeated Hamilton 6-0 to improve to 2-1. In upcoming action, the Little Tigers are slated to play at Ewing on September 19 before hosting powerful Pennington on September 20 as part of homecoming weekend. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

After the Princeton High girls’ soccer team suffered a frustrating 2-1 loss to Robbinsville to begin last week, the squad concentrated on its passing game as it hosted Hamilton on Friday.

“We actually had a team meeting before this game and we knew what to do in a situation like that,” said PHS junior star Taylor Lis.

“We had to focus on connecting the passing and getting the little things done first and we knew that would build into the bigger pieces.”

Midfielder Lis took that message to heart, connecting for four assists against Hamilton to help the Little Tigers go from a 1-0 halftime advantage to a 6-0 rout of the Hornets.

For Lis, her performance reflected her comfort level at playing in a new spot for PHS as she has been moved to center midfield this season after playing on the outside her first two years.

“Playing in the center mid, a key role of mine is to distribute the ball,” said Lis.

“A lot of the balls were on in behind today so I would get the ball and play in until I stepped up and drew the other girls’ defenders. I was able to play it through on most occasions.”

In the win over Hamilton, it took a while for PHS to get it going as it didn’t score its first goal until under 31 seconds were left in the first half despite generating six straight corner kicks in one seven-minute stretch.

“We were getting a little frustrated,” said Lis. “As soon as we got that first goal, they kept coming. We were getting the passes off. We were getting the quick passes and getting everyone involved throughout the whole field.”

Lis has enjoyed seeing her younger sister, freshman midfielder Devon, get involved in the PHS attack.

“That is definitely fun for me,” said Lis. “I was looking forward to her stepping up to high school. We played together when we were younger. She stepped into my outside mid position and she took my old number too so I like to call her my little mini-me. I love working with her. She is another one, I know exactly how she plays.”

The Little Tigers have loved working with new head coach Val Rodriguez, who has taken the helm of the program from longtime head coach Greg Hand.

“It is a great dynamic, it carried over from what coach Hand was doing when he was here,” said Lis.

“She had been working with him for many years. I know throughout my whole high school career we have had her with us. It is definitely a bit of a different style but we knew what to expect so we were prepared for that. We did great work in the preseason so when the season came, we knew what she expected of us and we knew what to do. It was a pretty smooth transition actually.”

Rodriguez, for her part, liked the way her squad learned from the loss to Robbinsville.

“We watched a lot of film on it and evaluated some of the things we did wrong,” said Rodriguez. “We were possessing for three, four passes and then we would give it away. We did an OK job of winning it right back but we weren’t truly building.”

PHS did a great job of building things in the second half against Hamilton, tallying five goals in a span of 27 minutes.

“It was good soccer; it wasn’t just individual stuff,” said Rodriguez, who got three goals from senior striker Shannon Pawlak with a trio of juniors Serena Dibianco, Haley Bodden, and Gabby Deitch adding one apiece.

“It was team effort. The assists were the biggest piece of it and then the composure to put the ball in the back of the net. They weren’t always easy shots, they placed the ball very well.”

In Rodriguez’s view, Lis showed good composure in setting up her teammates on four of those goals.

“Bringing Taylor into the middle as a junior is huge for our possession,” said Rodriguez.

“She really sees the attack. Being an outside mid, she was constantly going up and down the sidelines. Now we are just focusing on how do we keep her central and involved. As a center mid, assists are the name of the game for her; she is figuring it out.”

On the defensive end, the Little Tigers figured out some things as well.

“The defense stepped up big-time today,” said Rodriguez, whose squad improved to 2-1 with the win over Hamilton and is slated to play at Ewing on September 19 before hosting powerful Pennington on September 20 as part of homecoming weekend.

“We had a rough game defensively against Robbinsville with some defensive things that were a little bit soft. We needed Emily [Pawlak] to lead and the confidence to play the ball out of the back. The backs kept their heads to go wide and keep possession today.”

Lis, for her part, believes the win over Hamilton demonstrates that PHS is headed in the right direction.

“I know we have some big games next week, especially Pennington on our homecoming so this was definitely a confidence booster for that,” said Lis.

“We are going to come out hard in practice and hopefully do the same thing next week. The team chemistry is great, everyone knows each other. We know how each other work. I think that is the biggest part, knowing how your teammates play, knowing what balls to play and to which person. That allows us all to connect.”