Last year, Samantha Kroeger’s role with the Rutgers women’s soccer team was very much of the blue-collar variety, doing the dirty work so the team’s star players could shine. This year, however, Kroeger has been off to a flashing hot start as the junior attacker has three goals in the last two games.
Those three goals, coincidentally, have come via her head, her right foot and then her left foot.
In her first two years with the Scarlet Knights, Kroeger played a bit further away from goal at times. With an unrelenting work ethic, she was tasked with making hard runs to press the opposing backline.
Her industry led to turnovers and much appreciation among her teammates but little in the way of headlines. In her first two seasons across 41 games – all starts – Kroeger tallied six goals and seven assists. Solid numbers, but nothing like she is producing this year.
The junior from West Milford High School (West Milford, N.J.) is already at four goals and two assists through the first six games of the 2022 season. She scored the opening two goals of Sunday’s 3-0 win over Princeton.
Both Kroeger goals were scored in the opening two minutes of the match, setting the tone early for Rutgers, now 6-0.
“As an upperclassman, my role this year is in the attacking third to score as many goals as possible, and I want to influence our play as much as possible, both on and off the field,” Kroeger told RutgersWire following Sunday’s win over Princeton.
“And I think that we’ve talked about so much about field presence and I’m coming along with that and my hope is to just continue to do that throughout the season, especially when we come into Big Ten play. Scoring as many goals now and getting my confidence up here is going to help me succeed in Big Ten play, hopefully,”
The Sunday win by Rutgers avenges a bad regular season loss last year where Rutgers blew a 2-0 halftime lead to Princeton. The Ivy League program is a perenially solid squad, one that advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
As for Kroeger, her growth and development in the final third is important as Rutgers looks to offset the loss of Amirah Ali and Frankie Tagliaferi. The dynamic duo last year, now in the NWSL, was the best scoring tandem in the Big Ten last year.
That’s where Kroeger’s maturation is important for Rutgers. With her high work rate and strong tactical acumen, she has nuanced the position even more. She is making smarter runs…
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