Schalick boys soccer ousted in South Jersey Group I sectional finals on golden goal early in OT
GROUP I SECTIONAL FINALS
South
Palmyra 2, Schalick 1 (OT)
Central
Shore 1, College Achieve Central 0 (OT)
North I
Mountain Lakes 1, Waldwick 0
North 2
Brearley 2, North Arlington 1
STATE SEMIFINALS
Palmyra (19-2-1) at Shore (15-7)
Brearley (12-6-1) at Mountain Lakes (13-7)
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE – The hardest thing for any team to see is watching an opponent celebrate on their field. The Phillies watched the Diamondbacks do it after the NLCS and then the Diamondbacks watched the Rangers do it to them in the World Series.
It’s never any fun, but that was the gut-punch that befell the Schalick boys soccer team Saturday as it glumly stood by and watched Palmyra jump up and down and raise the sectional trophy after winning 2-1 in the South Jersey Group I finals.
The Panthers won it on a golden goal by senior Richie Butler 73 seconds into overtime. Butler also scored their game-tying goal running onto a header with 5:51 left in the first half.
“That’s the best goal I’ve ever scored in my life,” Butler said. “I’ve dreamed about that when I was little. It finally happened today. I’m just in disbelief right now. Everything is so, so surreal.”
It happened at all because Butler got two bites at the apple. Andrew Santoro crossed the ball into the box from the right wing and Abdul Iyiola nudged it towards Butler with his left foot. Butler tried to scrape a shot towards the goal with his left foot and was challenged, but he recovered and sent a shot with his right foot toward the upper left corner that keeper Evan Sepers just couldn’t get.
The ball banged off the inside of the left post and instead of caroming away as all of the others that had hit the post in the match it deflected into the back of the net. It was only the second goal against Sepers in the Cougars’ last nine games.
“He put it in a perfect spot,” Sepers said. “It’s not easy to save a ball that’s put up there.”
The Panthers (19-2-1) will now play at Shore Regional (15-7) in the Group I state semifinals after its seventh straight win.
Palmyra went on the attack from the start and kept the action in Schalick’s end early on, but Bradford Foster gave the Cougars (17-5) a 1-0 lead with 18:26 left in the first half off a free kick by Jaxon Weber following a yellow-card foul. Nolan O’Toole was credited with pushing the ball towards Foster, who finished from in front of the goal.
Weber celebrated the score with a back flip.
The Cougars almost got one two and a half minutes earlier, but O’Toole was turned back on a semi-breakaway and Nathan Keen’s spinning rebound banged softly off the left post before being cleared away. And Anthony Sepers had a header glance off the post with 15 minutes left in the half.
“We had some great opportunities in that first half to put more in there,” Cougars coach Joe Mannella said. “It’s not much different feeling last game. The last game we just get that winner but we played a great game. This thing, same way. You played a great game and proud of what they did. It’s worst when you dominate a team and the team steals one from you, so we can live with that.”
Neither team scored in the second half, but both had some good opportunities. The Panthers kept the pressure up all game. They hit the post numerous times and had more than a dozen corner kicks that provided some nervous moments for the goalkeeper.
As well as both defenses played to keep the other at arm’s length, it looked for a while the game might wind up going to penalty kicks until the Panthers snuck one in early in overtime.
“I’m glad with the way we played, very happy; we played amazing,” Sepers said. “Losing 4-0 to them earlier in the season is not easy coming into this game, but I feel like we fought the entire match and they came out (on top).”
Top photo: Palmyra’s Richie Butler sends ‘the best goal I’ve ever scored in my life’ towards the upper left corner to win the match.
Riverview Sports News 