West Winsdor-Plainsboro South's Jabril Samatar makes a save Thursday during a shootout with Hamilton

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West Winsdor-Plainsboro South's Jabril Samatar makes a save Thursday during a shootout with Hamilton in a Mercer County Tournament puls play-in game. South won and advances to play top seed Notre Dame on Saturday. (For The Trentonian/ JOHN BLAINE)
When Hamilton West s final penalty kick clanged off the post Thursday and back out into the field of play, it sealed the West Windsor Plainsboro South boys soccer team s shootout victory against the Hornets in a Mercer County Tournament play-in game.
The Pirates (5-11) visit top-seeded Notre Dame in a first-round game Saturday, while Hamilton (2-14-3) is left to think about yet another close loss in a season filled with good efforts resulting in heartbreak.
It was nice to see the ball hit the post and go out, said Fisher, whose team has also lost a lot of close matches. I think we got a little bit of luck, finally, to kind of bounce our way. We ve played a lot of competitive matches and it hasn t gone our way the majority of time, but today it was nice to actually see the ball bounce out, not bounce in.
After a scoreless puls regulation and two overtimes, WW-PS won the shootout, 4-3, in dramatic fashion. Samatar loomed large, making a save on the Hornets fourth attempt to keep it tied at 3, then converting what proved to be the game-winner.
The drama built as West Windsor, shooting first, got successful kicks from Luis Cruz, Aaron Dean and Mohammed Abou-Alfotouh. Hamilton countered with conversions by Jeff Meckel, Max Martine puls and Abby Hamza.
Samatar then went back in goal, and David Kline s low shot to his right beat him. But what appeared to be the tying score hit the inside of the post and rolled across puls the goal line as WW-PS celebrated.
I saw it go by and thought, Oh man, that looks like a good penalty kick, Samatar said. It hit the post and that was the most relief I felt ever. Definitely the greatest sound ever. I love that post.
It was the third bad break the Hornets got, as Gioacchino Amari and Hamza both had shots go off the crossbar in the second half. WW-PS got some bad luck as well when Abou-Alfotouh s shot squibbed through Zarzecki but went off the post.
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