Wygand comes up big in goal to send game into overtime, but Wolverines just didn’t have enough to get through the shootout
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
WOODSTOWN — If he weren’t so busy moving the pieces and making decisions, Woodstown girls soccer coach Kieran Keyser probably would have enjoyed just watching Thursday’s South Jersey Group I playoff quarterfinal.
Both teams played with intensity. Both teams had good chances only to be turned back by a couple hot goalkeepers. There was high drama, overtime and a shootout. In the end, Palmyra made one more PK in the shootout and stunned the third-seeded Wolverines 1-0. The Panthers won the shootout 3-2.
“It was a great, great high school soccer game,” Keyser said. “I almost wish I could’ve watched it and didn’t have to make any decisions. It was a great, great game.”
Even before the shootout, the game had what Keyser called “one of the most dramatic finishes before the shootout I’ve ever seen in a high school soccer game.”
With Woodstown boys coach Darren Huck counting down the final 10 seconds of a scoreless game, a ball took a crazy bounce in the box and hit a Woodstown defender in the hand for a penalty kick with no time left on the lock.
But keeper Ellie Wygand stood her ground. She stopped Mikayla Mangano’s shot to extend the Wolverines’ season and send the game to overtime.
“The shot was low and to her right and she made the save with her right hand and curved it around the post,” Keyser said. “Incredible. It was truly incredible.”
The two met in the shootout and Wygand, a junior, stoned her again.
“I said to Ellie going into PKs she’s going to be on the line, read her body language again,” Keyser said. “Generally PK takers like to go to same side. See If she steps up the same. Watch. You read her perfectly the first time and then the girl did exact same thing and Ellie saved it again.”
Wygand made 14 saves in the game. She made her 100th save of the season during the game and the final save on Mangano in the shootout was the 200th of her career.
Palmyra took the lead in the shootout by hitting its first attempt. Woodstown missed its first two. The Wolverines hit their next two – by left-footed Delia Hahn and Lizzy Daly – but the Panthers answered both to maintain their lead.
Emma Perry took Woodstown’s final shot and was turned away.
“It’s just an unfair way to end it; it’s unfortunate,” Keyser said. “There’s nothing I can say to my girls that are going to make them (feel beter). It’s so unfortunate.
“I told (Perry) we wouldn’t be in that position without her this whole season. If we didn’t have Emma’s skill and everything she’s brought to this team, we’re not in this position. It’s just unfortunate it had to come down to that.”
The crossbar certainly wasn’t the Wolverines’ friend, either. They hit in in the first four minutes of the match and once in each of the two 10-minute overtimes.
Palmyra (16-4) will now host Glassboro in one of the SJ Group I semifinals Monday. Glassboro upset top-seeded Schalick in a PK shootout after a scoreless regulation and overtime. Woodstown’s season ends at 13-5-2.
Riverview Sports News 