It was for Glassboro, at least; Bulldogs end Schalick’s season in PK shootout to advance in South Jersey Group I girls soccer playoffs
SJ GROUP I GIRLS SOCCER
Thursday’s Quarterfinals
Audubon 4, Gateway 1
Haddon Twp. 6, Riverside 0
Palmyra 1, Woodstown 0 (3-2 SO)
Glassboro 1, Schalick 0 (5-4 SO)
Monday’s Semifinals
(4) Haddon Twp. at (1) Audubon
(7) Glassboro at (6) Palmyra
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE — Tears flowed from both sides of the center line here Thursday afternoon, but they were coming from different places.
Glassboro coach Scott Rogers was fighting back tears as he tried to describe the pride in his undermanned team’s 1-0 shootout win over second-seeded host Schalick in the SJ Group 1 girls soccer quarterfinals. The Bulldogs won the shootout 5-4.
The Schalick players, meanwhile, were understandably distraught that a game they had dominated got away in the most intense of ways and ended an otherwise inspirational season fraught with injuries that sometimes made it challenging to field a starting 11.
“I really am trying not to cry,” Rogers said after his first PK shootout in 14 years of coaching. “It’s the old adage: It’s hard to beat a team three times. I told our girls we had nothing to lose, as a seventh-seed, sneaking in as the seventh seed by one-thousanths of a point (to get on this side of the bracket … You can hear how nuts they are (celebrating in the dugout). This is a huge boost to the program.”
The Bulldogs (10-5-3) now travel to sixth-seeded Palmyra (16-4), which knocked off Woodstown in a PK shootout a little ways up the road.
While all 12 available players on the Bulldogs’ roster contributed to the win, the difference in the match clearly was the play of Glassboro keeper Sunny Moore. The junior repeatedly turned back the Cougars in regulation and overtime, then stoned them three straight times in the sudden death wave of penalty kicks before Emma Schoch ripped the game-winner past Schalick sophomore goalie Eve Berger on the ninth round.
“Sunny played out of her head today,” Rogers said. “With her in the back for us, it makes you sleep a little easier. “
The Cougars’ best chance to score on her came in the first half when Liv Vanacker banged a shot off the crossbar with 8:35 left in the first half and Abby Willoughby did the same with the rebound. Moore stoned Vanacker and Willoughby on semi-breakaways midway through the second half. And they had numerous other chances throughout regulation and overtime that just became another save.
“I don’t even know how many shots we had, but that was probably one of our better games creating opportunities,” Schalick coach Will Kemp said. “(But) when you have the best goalkeeper in the state playing, it’s really difficult to get anything by her.
“Sunny is unbelievable. Any other goalkeeper, we score. The funnest part is putting the ball in the back of the net; the hardest part is getting it past Sunny.”
Schalick, which had beaten Glassboro the last 18 times they played and twice this season, took a 2-0 lead in the Round of 5 PKs when Quinn Berger and Emily Miller beat Moore off the line. But the Bulldogs hit their last three attempts to force the sudden-death round, with Moore coming out of the goal to go one-on-one with her opposite number to extend the shootout.
“I knew coming into this game I had to play my heart out, this had to be my best game of the season,” Moore said. “That’s just what I put my mind to. I just tried my best. I tried to anticipate shots more than I would in a regular game. In the shootout it was the same mindset, this had to be my best game, I had to show up and show out. We had to get this.
“(Falling behind 2-0) I didn’t try to think about it too much, I just tried to clear my head because I knew that’s what I needed. I knew if I stayed frustrated the game would go their way. It was kind of a reset in my head. All these parents were yelling the entire game so it’s like I have to prove these people wrong.”
Cali Fisler gave the Cougars the lead in the sudden-death round, but Amina Brown matched it on Glassboro’s turn. Both teams missed their next two attempts – Eve Berger turned away Marianna Dempster and Marissa Pasquarello, and Moore denied Quinn Berger and Abby Willoughby.
In the ultimately decisive ninth round, Miller shot towards the right post but Moore guessed correctly, dove towards the post and knocked the ball away. With the chance to win the match, Schoch, who scored on her Round-of-5 attempt, hit a bullet to the left side of the goal. Berger dove that way and got a hand on the shot, but it still got through just inside the post to end the marathon.
“II was just trying to save it for the team,” Berger said. “I got a whole hand on it. I think I was angled wrong. It hit hard. I wasn’t on a good angle, I don’t think.”
It was a bittersweet ending to the Cougars’ season. At one point in the season they had seven players on the injured list, accumulating more than 70 missed game. They played a couple weeks without their regular goalie. Still, they managed to put together a season that ended two wins shy of their sectional final run the year before.
“The girls were great this year,” Kemp said. “Even though with all the injuries, playing with 11 players multiple times, underclassmen stepping up, girls who never played organized soccer before stepping up, it just shows how tough this team currently is. I’m excited for the future for them. For them to overcome as much as they did this past season, I’m nothing but proud of them.”
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