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Senior Stalnaker set for Scotties’ soccer season BY JUSTIN FEIL The wait is over for Anna Stalnaker. A starter for the Bordentown Regional High School girls soccer team since her freshman year, the senior midfielder is looking to make the most of her final season with the Scotties. “I’ve definitely been waiting to become a senior,” Stalnaker said. “I think the past four years have definitely just been so fun. I love soccer season. I really appreciate all the coaching that I’ve been given and everything, and it’s all been very beneficial. I’m definitely excited for this year and hopefully it goes well.” Stalnaker is the leading returning scorer for the Scotties, who graduated their top scorer, Julie Wojcik from last year’s team that went 7-12 overall, 6-6 in the Burlington County Scholastic League. Stalnaker will be slotted in the center midfield for the fourth straight year. “Her distribution skills are extremely good, and I had seen a lot of that when she was younger,” said Bordentown head coach Dominick Castaldo. “Her sophomore year and her junior year putting her in the center, and as a freshman, she came in and started playing
center half. We kind of put her in a situation and it was baptism under fire really. And she’s responded really well. She will be the distributor for us and how we’re going to actually handle things on the field and keep possession. She will score goals too. She’s encouraged to shoot.” Her production has gone up each season, from four points as a freshman, to 10 points as a sophomore, to 27 points on nine goals and nine assists last season. Stalnaker is happiest creating for others, and understands the importance of generating goals to the team. “I love scoring goals too, but I definitely take pride in my passing ability,” Stalnaker said. “And I think I see the field well and that’s why I love playing like attacking center mid or center midfield in general because I think it gives me an opportunity to make good plays and have assists and everything like that. “Obviously I have a goal to score as many goals as I can, but an even bigger goal would be to play-make and give opportunities to our forwards so they are able to also score and we can get our goal rate up from last year. I think that would be great.” Bordentown will open the See SOCCER, Page 27
Girl Scouts Emma Wright, Harlow McKelvey, Ananya Ojha, Emma Vasil, Sharon Suthamathi and Frankie Ortu at Bordentown Regional Middle School with one of the inspirational passages they painted on the hallways walls this summer.
Scout troop looks to inspire at middle school with hallway art BY KAITLIN BAVARO Bordentown’s Girl Scout troop 24126 is earning its Bronze Award for painting inspirational and positive quotes on the walls of the girl’s and boy’s locker room and bathrooms at Bordentown Regional Middle School. The troop, who were fi fth graders at the time that they began planning, were brain-
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storming ideas for their award almost a year ago. In order for a girl scout troop to earn their bronze award, each troop member must complete 20 hours worth of community service work. The work that the troop chooses to do must have a lasting impact on their community. One of the troop’s leaders, Cristy Ortu, is a science teacher
at BRMS, and was sharing some examples of other girl scout projects that she knew of. Ortu mentioned that a BRMS student named Rayna earned her Silver Award (the second highest Girl Scout honor) six years prior by painting uplifting quotes on the walls of the locker rooms and bathrooms. Ortu recalls the girls being See INSPIRE, Page 8
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