Carrying on

Woodstown, top-seeded Schalick pick up quarterfinal wins in SJ Group I girls bracket, remain on collision course for sectional final

GIRLS SOCCER
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I TOURNAMENT
Saturday’s Quarterfinals
Schalick 2, Glassboro 0
Audubon 2, Palmyra 0
Haddon Twp. 6, Clayton 0
Woodstown 4, Gateway 3
Wednesday’s Semifinals
(5) Audubon at (1) Schalick
(7) Woodstown at (6) Haddon Twp.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODBURY HEIGHTS – Kieran Keyser has been around the game of soccer a long time as a player and a coach, so when he tells you his Woodstown team’s South Jersey Group I playoff game against Gateway was one of the most exciting he’s been involved with you can just about take it to the bank.

The teams went back and forth for 80 minutes Saturday trading goal for goal before Emma Morgan fired back a rebound with less than four minutes left to stun the second-seeded Gators 4-3 win and send the Wolverines into the semifinals for the first time since 2019.

It was the Gators’ first loss since the season opener and snapped their 16-game winning streak.

“It was one of the most exciting games I’ve been a part of as a player or a coach,” Keyser said. “It was about as back-and-forth as you could have it.

“It was stressful, I will say. I talked to a couple of the parents at the game and they said I did not need that stress. I said I did not either. I am 31 years old and that was the most stressful thing … It put some gray hairs on my head, for sure.”

Gateway scored first midway through the first half – its only lead – but Morgan tied it with her first goal on a “textbook play” with Emma Perry and freshman Hailey Kucharczuk put Woodstown up 2-1 at halftime. The Gators tied it early in the second half, Perry gave the Wolverines a 3-2 lead, but Gateway retied it less than two minutes later.

“They just kept coming back on every goal we got,” Morgan said. “It was like every goal we got near the end we were like this is the one (that ends it), like we’re going to park the bus now, we’re going to settle down and just play defensive and then they’d get another one and then we’d have to fight again. It was almost like we really thought we were going to have to go into overtime because they’d answer every goal.”

She saw to it they didn’t. Delia Hahn sent a free kick into the box, Kucharczuk headed it off the crossbar and Morgan beat the defender to the rebound to finish it into an open goal. It was her ninth goal of the season and first multi-goal game of her career.

“I was happy how our girls responded,” Keyser said. “We rose to the competition. We didn’t play super good against Pennsville, but we got the job done. I mean, that’s what the playoffs are all about. We rose to how good (Gateway) were and we pulled out the win. I was so proud of how our girls stepped up. We left everything out on the field today.”

The seventh-seeded Wolverines (15-3-1) now travel to sixth-seeded Haddon Twp. (10-9-1) Wednesday for the semifinals. They are the highest seeded team remaining in the bracket.

SCHALICK 2, GLASSBORO 0: The corner kick combination of Quinn Berger and Emily Miller struck again, this time connecting on a pair of first-half goals to send the top-seeded Cougars to the sectional semifinals.

It’s the fifth time in the last two games the two have teamed up to light the lamp. Berger now has 18 assists this season, 38 in her career and is now two shy of 100 points for her career.

“It’s just a connection, especially on corner kicks,” Schalick coach Will Kemp said. “Emily Miller is very good in the air, so she’s constantly finding the ball, and Quinn’s service is second to none.”

The Cougars (13-5-1) now host fifth-seeded Audubon (11-8-1) in the semifinals Wednesday.

The score wasn’t a true indicator of how much the Cougars dominated their tournament opener. They outshot the Bulldogs 21-0.

“The results are the results, it’s the way the game goes sometimes,” Kemp said. “One of the things Glassboro did well was their goalkeeper performed extremely well again. She made some really good saves.”