Niri Halperin picked up right where she left off.
The dynamic Brooklyn Technical junior midfielder looked in midseason form in the team’s season opener. She was quick to every ball, toyed with defenders with the ball at her field and showed a pinpoint accuracy with her passes. Halperin, who scored 23 goals and dished out seven assists last season, tallied two goals and an assist in Tech’s 6-1 win over division rival Midwood in PSAL Brooklyn A-III girls soccer at Charles B. Wang Field on Tuesday.
“She is always ready to play no matter what,” senior midfielder Nicholette Cameron said. “She can take three months off and she will come back and play like she always did.”
Except she didn’t, spending the summer working on her individual skills when she could, even against boys.
“She is very skillful in terms of dribbling around three, four, five girls easy and scoring from any conceivable angle,” Tech coach Thomas Nguyen said.
Halperin had a play just like that on her second goal when she escaped from three defenders near midfield and then dribbled past two more to set up a score from about 12 yards out to give Tech a 5-0 lead. Four other players — Alexandra Reeves, Kiyana Dunlock, Ryan O’Connell and Cameron — all scored goals. Midwood tallied its lone score on an Isabella Schaefer penalty kick in the second to make it 5-1. The Hornets were missing three key players because of a lack of the minimum number of practices.
“I can pass to someone knowing that they can do something well with the ball,” Halperin said. “The defender can’t focus on one player — they have to worry about everyone.”
Having multiple threats will be a key to Brooklyn Tech accomplishing its goal of advancing past the quarterfinals and challenging for a city crown. That, along with a strong midfield, should give the Engineers a good chance to compete with the top squads. They went 13-0-1 and won their first division crown before losing, 3-1, to Bronx Science in the playoffs.
“A lot of people play different positions. If we have to make adjustments, we have enough players were we can switch it around,” Cameron said. “We are not just stuck with one formation.”
One of those versatile players is O’Connell, who will be the team’s goalkeeper in big games and can play midfield. She and senior sweeper Kayla Bynum, who isn’t afraid to be physical in the air, should form a formidable defense.
“She is like a professional,” Nguyen said of O’Connell. “She knows how to get in and out of the box area and has strong goal kicks.”
It is the growing experience on a team that lost just two seniors that has the Engineers thinking greater goals are possible.
“Every year we have advanced even more,” Cameron said. “This year we are trying to get to the finals.”
