By Red Birch, Special to The Post

Drew Siversten is a forgotten commodity in the scheme of things for the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys soccer team this season.

As a junior a year ago, Siversten scored eight goals to help the Pirates go 14-5-2.

Heading into last Friday’s game at the Pennington School, however, the 5-foot-11 senior had only scored twice this year because of a switch in his position.

The change worked to WW-P South’s advantage when the Red Raiders did not pay close enough attention to the defensive midfielder when he pushed into the attack on a play deep in Pennington’s end with the game tied and 12:43 remaining.

Junior Nick Young, who had just entered the game, uncorked a long throw-in directly to Siversten’s head at the near post, where Siversten redirected the toss into the net with a tilt of his noggin for the winning goal in a 3-2 victory over the Red Raiders.

“Yeah, I do like playing defensive midfield,” Siversten said. “With me back there, it allows (Alex) Prieto and (Zach) Rosenberg move around more up top because its not as clogged.”

The move also allows Pirates head coach Brian Welsh to take advantage of Siversten’s size in the middle of the field and on restarts like the one on which he scored yesterday.

“Nick, Ralph Aurora and Peter Cerrito all can throw the ball pretty far, so deep in the other team’s end, that’s almost like a corner kick for us,” Siversten said.

It also provided a crucial turn of events to a game in which Pennington had scored first in each half. Dean Psomaras got the home team on the board first when he knocked in a lead from Steve Hawkey a minute into the game. Then Nate Bruccoleri centered a pass which Kyle Roach kicked into the net 1:14 after intermission to tie the game, 2-2.

“If we’re going to be better, we’ve got to be tighter in the backfield,” Welsh said.

WW-P South (10-2) did a better job once seniors Aurora and Steve McCarron fought off injuries and re-entered the lineup when the Red Raiders evened the score.

Just like Siversten, Pennington (7-3) had moved dangerous attacker Chandler Fraser-Pauls to defensive midfield as the Pirates rallied in the first half.

“They’ve been switching me around because of injuries,” Fraser-Pauls said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Prieto was the Red Raiders’ biggest problem as he weaved around and between players to get to goal. First, he passed to Mike Skapyak for the tying tally with 15 minutes left in the first half.

Just over three minutes later, Prieto beat two fullbacks and Pennington goalkeeper John Ricketti with a shot to give his team the lead at halftime.

“We’re never happy with losing,” Fraser-Pauls said after his team fell to its second Colonial Valley Conference team this week. “But it’s a midseason loss, so hopefully we’ll learn from it.”

The home team kept the pressure on down to the final seconds. A minute after Siversten’s goal, Roach rocketed a free kick, which was saved by WW-P South goalkeeper Henry MacQueen. Then with 54 seconds left, Fraser-Pauls pushed into the attack and slipped through the Pirates’ defense to get a crack at the goal, only to have his bullet skim the crossbar.

“We missed some good chances like mine right there,” Fraser-Pauls said. “If we keep working hard, the goals will come.”

Siversten can attest to that.

UPDATE: Kyle Roach’s natural hat trick and Nate Bruccoleri’s goal and two assists helped the Pennington School boys soccer team stop Peddie’s six-game winning streak Oct. 19 with a resounding, 5-0 victory on the Raiders’ home turf.

Chandler Fraser-Pauls got the Red Raiders started with a goal off one of Oliver Murphy’s three assists.