HAMILTON – With prep schools no longer playing in the Mercer County Tournament, the Hun School boys’ soccer team won’t get a chance to prove itself against the county’s top public school teams in a tournament format. So the Raiders settled for the next best thing, as Luciano Verduci converted a pass from Noah Silvestre in the first overtime to give Hun a 1-0 victory on Steinert’s Senior Day. It was a battle of top-5 teams in the Trentonian’s area rankings as the Spartans are tied for second and Hun is No. 5. “I’d like to play more Mercer County teams when we get a chance, it’s good soccer,” Hun coach Pat Quirk said. “Steinert is one of the best ones, so, I guess you gotta say this is kind of like our county tournament.” Steinert coach Anthony Tessein said it certainly seemed that way. “It was a good game, it had a tournament feel to it,” Tessein said. “It was physical. It went back and forth, guys putting everything they had into it. We just came up short, we gotta watch the film and see what we could have done differently.” The outcome was extra special for Verduci, considering he’s a Hamilton resident who lives in Steinert’s district. “It’s totally a tough match, I know some of those guys and they are really good,” the senior said. “All the luck to them. They’re a really good team. We thought we could beat them, we shouldn’t have come in over-confident but we did a lot of hard work to win. We’ve been a little too comfortable lately so this was some motivation, maybe it will wake us up.” Hun (9-1-2) seemed a little sleepy in the first half. The Raiders did not have a shot and were rarely in Steinert’s end of the field. The Spartans could not take advantage, however, putting just three shots on goal. The closest either side came to scoring in regulation was Elliot Morris’ header off the crossbar. At halftime, adjustments were made. “We switched the formation a little,” Quirk said. “We had been playing a 3-5-2 the last couple of games but they’re not as comfortable in it. Wider field today so we decided to switch it up a little. We felt we could press them a little better in that 4-4-3 system. Hun began to take the play and outshot Steinert 5-1 in the second half. But there were no dangerous scoring opportunities as the game became more chippy and physical as it went along (with three yellow cards given). “It was a battle, a little bit of a slugfest,” Quirk said. Which was not good for the Spartans (8-2-3). “We got wrapped up in the physicality of the game and stopped playing soccer,” Tessein said. In the overtime, Hun seized the play. Silvestre took a ball on the left flank and lofted a pass toward the goal that went off a Steinert player’s head. Verduci was there to one-touch it into the back of the net. “We talked a lot about switching the field and going to the left side because the left side was a little weaker than the right,” Verduci said. “That really helped, and that ball through by Noah was perfect run of the play for me so I put it in. “There was just a lot of adrenaline going through me, a lot of excitement and a hunger to put it in. I had a talk with my coach, he was motivating me. All positivity from the bench from the team and that’s what led to that. I wouldn’t have done it without them.” Quirk revealed the chat he had with Verduci, saying, “He’s a really hard working kid. He just puts his head down. I talked to him after (regulation). He took a couple shots and missed really badly. “I told him ‘Take a breath Looch, it’s gonna come.’ He starts to take that stuff to heart. And Noah was playing great ball today.” For Steinert, this completed a difficult four-game gauntlet against Robbinsville, Cherokee, Princeton and Hun. The Spartans emerged 1-2-1 with both losses by 1-0 scores. “I’d rather be 4-0 after that stretch,” Tessein said. “There’s some good and some bad things. Today I’m not quite sure where it went wrong. We didn’t get a lot of shots on goal. I really don’t have a great answer right now. This was a hard-fought game and we came up short.” Hun (9-1-2) 0 0 1 – 1 Steinert (8-2-3) 0 0 0 – 0 G: Verduci. A: Silvestre. Shots: H-8, S-7. Saves: H-Pena 3. S-Chaykovskyy 4.