Schalick girls falls in sectional soccer final, question integrity of what proved to be game-winning goal
GROUP 1 SECTIONAL FINALS
South: Audubon 2, Schalick 1
Central: Point Pleasant Beach 4, Shore 3
North I: Pequannock 1, Lenape Valley 0
North II: Mountain Lakes 3, New Providence 1
STATE SEMIFINALS
Thursday
Point Pleasant Beach at Audubon
Pequannock at Mountain Lakes
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Sunday
At Franklin High School, 12:30 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
AUDUBON — Will Kemp had to give the hardest post-game speech he ever has as a soccer coach and it was painful.
His Schalick girls soccer team had just played 80 hard minutes and fallen to Aubudon 2-1 in the South Jersey Group I sectional final at Green Wave Park and he had to find something to ease his players’ collective pain.
It was a game that in which, while close, admittedly not much went the Cougars’ way, especially what proved to be the game-winning goal. It was a difficult end to an otherwise outstanding season.
“Any type of post-game, post-season, speech when you don’t win it all is always tough,” Kemp said. “This is my second one that I’ve had to give. Last year we didn’t make it to the finals, this year we did, so it’s progress, the girls see it.
“It’s always tough, it’s never going to be an easy thing until you win it all. And even then it’s a hard speech because it’s over.”
The Cougars (16-5), who hadn’t given up a goal in its previous four games, fell behind 2-0.
The Green Wave (19-1-2) scored on Peyton Marrone’s header into the upper left corner off a right corner kick 8:30 into the match that keeper Carly Hayman just couldn’t get to. They got a second goal 11 minutes into the second half on a ball the Cougars are convinced crossed the end line before ending up on goal scorer Makenna Ammon’s left foot.
The Marrone goal was the first Schalick had surrendered in more than 340 minutes.
The second goal was a little less cut-and-dried for the Cougars. From a midfield vantage point it was difficult to see where the ball was when it was played back into the box, but the Schalick players pulled up and they wouldn’t do that if the ball was in bounds, they said.
The Green Wave, however, played on and got the ball to the right-footed Ammon at the top of the box. Ammon switched feet in traffic and scored from straight on.
“It was definitely over (the line),” Hayman said. “Everyone kind of stopped because everyone saw it had went out.”
“It’s a very unfortunate second goal,” Kemp said. “When you see the entire team stop, even their players stop, and the play continues after that and then the ball goes across the line. It takes away from the integrity of the game. It puts us inside a low moment, knowing for a fact the game should’ve come to a halt and a goal kick should’ve been given. But, of course, nothing that we went through today went our way.”
Green Wave coach Bill Scully always has his girls play to the whistle and in this case there was no whistle, so no reason to stop.
“No. 1, I thought the ball was in play and second of all we don’t stop,” Scully said. “Our mentality is we don’t stop until something happens. We’re always looking to attack with numbers and that’s kind of what we just kept doing.”
Ammon was “pretty sure” the ball stayed in play when it got deep. At halftime, after watching his leading scorer pass up opportunities in the first half to get her teammates the ball, Scully encouraged his leading scorer to take more shots in the second half and she did and it produced her 18th goal of the season.
“Scoring that goal felt unbelievable in the moment,” Ammon said. “I didn’t think it was going to be the game-winner because we were winning by one at the time, but just scoring a goal in the final felt amazing, just knowing I put it all out there and was able to get a result out of it.”
Given the Green Wave’s standard of defense this season – they had a school-record 16 shutouts – it was going to be a challenge for Schalick to score. They had allowed only seven goals coming into the match and marked Cougars’ goal scoring machine Emily Miller tightly all game.
But Miller got one past the Green Wave’s second-half goalie Kylie Cannaday midway through the second half when she banged home the rebound after Abby Willoughby hit the crossbar. It was her 48th goal of the season, more than she ever expected to get. She scored at least one goal in each of the Cougars’ last 13 games.
The final goal of her high school career gave the Cougars a jolt of momentum but they just couldn’t get the equalizer. They had a good chance at it moments after Miller’s goal but had a 3-on-2 break interrupted by an Audubon foul with the Cougars already on the attack.
“I could barely even move around; I had a man mark me the entire game,” Miller said. “It’s upsetting it didn’t turn out the way we wanted to. I tried being up there to get us some goals and it didn’t work out.
“I was going to get that one in no matter what. It gave us momentum to get another, like let’s pick up our heads we’re not out of this completely, we’re only one goal away. We got one, we couldn’t get another.”
The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak.
The Cougars’ offense suffered a major blow later in the half when Quinn Berger left the game with a serious ankle injury. Berger had all four of the Cougars’ shots in the first half and five of their six in the match.
“The integrity of the game was lost today,” Kemp repeated.
Audubon now hosts Central Group I winner Point Pleasant Beach in the state semifinals Thursday. The championship game is Sunday at Franklin High School in Somerset.
Riverview Sports News 