By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HI-NELLA — When Sterling High senior standout Montgomery Draham scores not long after the opening whistle, typically that means it’s going to be a long game for the Silver Knights’ opponent.
Tuesday’s game was long for visiting Holy Cross, but that’s because the Lancers came back to take a 2-1 lead, gave that lead up on another Draham goal with a little more than six minutes remaining, and needed overtime to get out of town with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Sterling — one of the better teams in the Colonial Conference.
“We just had to work together as a team and really play through all 80-plus minutes,” said sophomore Harlow Kajkowski, who had a tremendous game in the midfield.
“This was a hard game,” said senior striker Ava DeFulvio, a Burlington Township resident who scored two goals — the 89th and 90th of her illustrious career — including the game-winner in overtime on a penalty kick. “We know all these girls (on Sterling) are very good, but we also know we’re good players, so we just had to finish it. (After the first goal) we just had to get right back at it and treat it like it was 0-0. I have full confidence in all the girls around me, and we know when somebody scores an early goal like that on us, it’s time to go.
“We’re relentless and we’re going to keep going at it.”
Draham, a Purdue University commit and one of the top players in South Jersey, scored within the first two minutes of action, but the Lancers collected themselves rather quickly, and about 15 minutes later knotted the game at 1-1 when DeFulvio ran onto a through ball up the middle, beat a defender and scored past a diving Madison Sims, one of the top keepers in the Colonial Conference. Holy Cross went ahead, 2-1, later in the first half when Gina DiGiovanni made a run down the right side and ripped a shot into the lower left corner of the goal from about 20 yards out.
But when you have a player like Draham, you’re never out of a game, and the star senior came through for Sterling (4-2-1, 2-1-1 Colonial Liberty) with about six minutes to go, blasting a shot from more than 30 yards out into the upper left corner of the goal. That ultimately sent the game into overtime. Holy Cross (6-1, 2-1 Burlington County Scholastic League Liberty) had at least one player, and oftentimes two, marking Draham throughout the game, but there was nothing the defense could do on that play.
“We had someone keeping an eye on her, and me and some other people were just trying to play the ball through the middle,” Kajkowski said.
In the end, the Lancers had the better of the possession and in the first overtime period Kajkowski was taken down inside the box, leading to the decisive PK from DeFulvio. She calmly deposited a shot into the lower left corner, sending the Lancers to their fifth straight win.
“I kept trying to shoot out from 30 (yards) and my coach kept telling me to try to take (the defender) on and try to cross the ball,” Kajkowski explained. “I took the defender on, and she fouled me.”
Holy Cross lost, 3-0, to Cinnaminson on Sept. 8, but since then the Lancers have outscored opponents 22-6.
“This was a really hard game,” senior midfielder Gianna Benson, a Cherry Hill native, said. “I knew we had to come out and play strong because they have some great players. We had to make space and play off the ball. Moving off the ball helped a lot because we were able to provide (scoring) opportunities for ourselves.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Holy Cross travels to Allentown on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Sterling travels to Haddon Heights on Thursday at 4 p.m.
