By, Jake Karp

25 up, 25 down – The Shawnee Renegades carved out their spot in the record books after rolling past Northern Highlands 3-0 en route to achieving the impossible, the perfect season.

The outcome was hardly in doubt with this year’s Group 3 Classic, held at Franklin High School, featuring Shawnee firmly in control, dominating possession throughout the majority of the game.

Despite Northern Highlands maintaining possession for much of the first half, the Renegades abruptly stole momentum late in the half. A series of masterful passes set up Shawnee’s Junior Madelynn Sadusky, who found herself unguarded in front of the net. She then chipped a shot over Northern Highlands’ senior goalkeeper, Avery Hirsch, to open up the scoring for the Renegades. 

With Shawnee holding a one-goal cushion going into the second half, their offense kicked into high gear, unleashing shot after shot. A brilliant cross from Julia Tepes, who had recorded a hat-trick in Shawnee’s Semi-final victory over Jackson-Memorial, followed by a powerful throw-in by Avery Kornafel, who had two assists in the win, both set up shots from Eva Mateisch. The senior Matishch swiftly finished with strikes that found the back of the net in the second half, sealing the win for Shawnee and sending the passionate Renegade fan section into pandemonium.

Led by head coach Drew Wagner, not only is Shawnee the first undefeated team in South Jersey since Lenape in 2008–both squads going 25-0–but their dominance is especially remarkable considering they didn’t allow a single goal throughout the entire postseason. 

“[We] wanted it really badly and we’ve all been growing up playing soccer together and we got everything we wanted this year,” members of the Shawnee squad said after the game.

Despite the disappointing end to a hard-fought season for Northern Highlands, who won four straight state championships from 2011-2015, they put together an otherwise strong campaign finishing 18-4, and ranking 4th in the Big North conference. Although the Highlanders will say farewell to 15 graduating seniors this spring–many of whom played key roles in securing back-to-back sectional championships (Section 1, Group 3)–the future remains bright with NJGSCA Hall of Fame head coach Tara Madigan remaining at the helm for the Highlanders.

For the 33rd time in NJSIAA Girls Soccer history, a Group 3 Champion has been crowned–and for the first time, it’s the Shawnee Renegades.