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.

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.

Schalick goalie turns back penalty kick, helps Cougars blank Palmyra to reach SJ Group I girls soccer final

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Semifinals
Schalick 2, Palmyra 0
Audubon 4, Maple Shade 0
Championship
Monday
Schalick (16-4) at Audubon (18-1-2), 3 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PALMYRA – Will Kemp knew the exact moment it was going to be his Schalick girls soccer team’s day.

It was the moment early in the second half when senior goalie Carly Hayman turned away a penalty kick by Palmyra’s all-time leading goal scorer Julia Ostroff to maintain the Cougars’ one-goal lead in an eventual 2-0 victory in the South Jersey Group I semifinals.

“Once that save was made, I knew the momentum was going to carry for the rest of the match,” said Kemp, a former Schalick and in-state small-college goalie. “It was just a phenomenal moment. As a goalkeeper myself it was something you cheer even more than a goal for.

“Being able to prevent that goal puts us inside the final. It’s not just a save, it’s a game-winning save. That’s exactly what that actually is.”

The Cougars (16-4) will now play at top-seeded Audubon (18-1-2) for the South Jersey Group I title Monday at 3 p.m. It will be their third trip to the sectional finals in four years. They won it in 2021 – with Hayman in the goal.

Hayman has stopped penalty shots before, but not recently and never in such a pressure-packed situation.

The penalty was set up by a foul in the box. Hayman stood her ground until it came time to act and then she dove to knock the shot away.

“I was trying to read her,” Hayman said. “She decided to go (my) right and then I went to the right. It was in the air and I knocked it away. I was like, ‘Oh my God I made the save.” I kind of got up and started screaming.

“I was a little nervous because it was only 1-0 and I was thinking they can tie it right here. But I believed in myself that I could do it.”

Kemp believed in her, too. After the save Hayman tried to retrieve the rebound but was unsuccessful, but her defenders who have been so solid in front of her all season swept it to clear the ball away.

“Carly’s strong,” Kemp said. “She’s the type of player you can feel her presence especially inside of moments like that. She’s the type of person who will get in your head, look you square in the face and then end up making the save while talking to you a little bit.”

Palmyra did hold Schalick scoring machine Emily Miller goal-less for the first time in 11 games, but the Cougars (16-4) have other scorers.

Cali Fisler, who’s regularly on the assisting side of the scoring, gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead in the first half when she converted a give-and-go with Karlie Bakley. It was her ninth goal of the season to go with a school-record 22 assists.

Quinn Berger sealed the Cougars’ eighth straight victory when she scored on a free kick from just outside the 18 that was deflected by a defender about 10 minutes after Hayman’s big save.

The last time Miller didn’t have a goal was when the Cougars were shutout by Sterling on Sept. 29. She did have two breakaways that were denied. She’s holding with 47 goals.

The win earned the Cougars a measure of revenge for the Panthers knocking them out in last year’s sectional semifinals.

“They played extremely well,” Kemp said. “The girls nailed their tactics right. They did everything that was asked of them. It was probably one of the best games they played and especially at this level. The girls just executed everything properly.”

Nelson’s header in OT sends Schalick to SJ Group I boys soccer final; Cougars host Palmyra for title Saturday

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
Semifinals
Schalick 1, Haddon Twp. 0
Palmyra 4, Woodstown 0
Finals
Palmyra at Schalick, Sat., 11 a.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News 

PITTSGROVE – With a quick flick of the head and a nod to history, Schalick’s boys soccer team ended 10 years of playoff frustration at the hands of Haddon Twp. Wednesday.

Mike Nelson got his head on a free kick by Anthony Sepers and redirected it home with 5:19 left in the first overtime – a golden goal – to give the Cougars a 1-0 win over the defending sectional and state champions in the South Jersey Group I semifinals.

The top-seeded Cougars (17-4) will host Palmyra for the sectional title Saturday at 11 a.m. Palmyra (18-2-1) blanked Woodstown in the other semifinal, 4-0.

“When you’re making your way up the mountain you want to take down the guys who have been doing; they’ve been doing it for years now,” Schalick coach Joe Mannella said. “These guys just keep amazing me with the grit that they show and the perseverance. You can’t ask for more. It’s what it’s all about. We couldn’t have asked our guys today to do anything different. They did everything they were asked to do.”

The Cougars had been 0-4 all-time against the Hawks in a series that began in 2013. The last three meetings all took place in the South Jersey playoffs (2014, 2020, 2021). Two of the games were in the sectional semifinals, including the most recent prior to Wednesday.

The teams played to a scoreless, but entertaining tie in regulation, with attacks and counter attacks from both sides with and against the wind.

The team that had the wind had the advantage and most of the action was played in those attacking ends.

The Cougars took the wind to start overtime, just as they had in the second half, because they felt they had the momentum and it paid off.

Sepers took his free kick from midfield after Cooper Willoughby was fouled. He drove the ball into the box where Nelson’s 6-foot-2 frame rose above the crowd. 

The sophomore meant to head it down towards the front of the goal, but was late to the ball. But he was able to get the back of his head on it and sent it past Hawks keeper Collin Feeley into the right side of the goal.

Feeley got a hand on the ball but not enough to deflect it away. The Schalick bench erupted in celebration and mobbed their teammates still on the field.

It was Nelson’s seventh goal of the season. He scored the only goal in the Cougars’ quarterfinal win over Pitman Friday in a similar fashion.

“I was just tired, I wanted to get it done, I wanted to get it over with,” Nelson said. “I wanted to be the one to get it. I flicked it and I didn’t see it go in, but I heard everybody screaming and then I turned around and it was in the net. I was last one that touched it, so I was very happy that I got it.”

“We practice stuff like that all the time,” Mannella said. “We know particularly in the playoffs free kicks are huge. They won their game against Audubon off two free kicks. We won our Pitman game off a free kick. Late in the season when teams are so well matched sometimes that’s the difference.”

Evan Sepers and the Schalick defense were once again brilliant on their end. Among their more memorable plays, Willoughby cleared the ball from harm’s way when Sepers got out of position early in the game, the keeper made a point blank save on Ian Hewitt midway through the first half and later tipped Gabe Chatten’s header off a corner kick over the crossbar. He was credited with five saves, but it seemed like a lot more.

The Cougars have now won eight in a row and have posted six straight shutouts. They have not allowed a goal since the second half against Glassboro, a stretch that now covers 12 straight halves and an overtime without giving up a goal.

“With the wind coming at us it wasn’t very easy to defend, especially balls played over the top, so it was a little big nerve-wracking,” Sepers said. “But our defense locked down and came up with a W.”

“They know defense wins championships,” Mannella said. “Everybody knows defense wins championships. It’s easiest if you just keep the ball out of your net.”

The Cougars played Palmyra earlier this year and lost 4-0 in a game that put them on the path to the sectional final. They have gone 10-1 since that game with a different outlook on things.

“Honestly going up there early in the season and getting our butts whupped kind of opened these guys’ eyes,” Mannella said. “They wanted that game. We’re going up there just going to play a soccer game, I think it was a Friday afternoon, let’s go have a fun soccer game, and they pushed us around. They manhandled us.

“As opposed to Haddon Twp., who I know has a young team, this is Palmyra’s year to do it. They’ve been bumping into Haddon Twp. all these years, so to them it’s their year. They’ve got a senior-laden team and they showed us how to play like you want a game. That gave us something to chase.”

PALMYRA 4, WOODSTOWN 0: The Panthers scored four goals in the first half then kept the Wolverines (15-4-1) at bay the rest of game. Jase Jennings scored twice, while Richie Butler and Luke Cannuli scored once. The Panthers (18-2-1) peppered Woodstown keeper Ben Stengel with 15 shots, while controlling the midfield and limiting the Wolverines’ possessions and counterattacks.

“They are the better team and they played really well,” Wolverines coach Darren Huck said. “Palmyra is solid at every position and play unselfish soccer. We had a very good season and when you get this far in the season you are going to face teams like that.”

The loss snapped Woodstown’s seven-game winning streak. Palmyra takes a six-game winning streak into the match with Schalick. With the loss, striker Aiden Ibarra ended his season with 26 goals, a school record for goals by a junior.

“I’m proud of my players for the season they had,” Huck said. “Well deserved because of the time and work they put in in the offseason. They understand the culture that is within this program, which I am very proud of.”

Schalick girls soccer beats Haddon Twp.; Miller scores twice, Hayman gets a goalie assist and shutout

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP !
GIRLS SOCCER
Monday’s quarterfinals
Audubon 2, Clayton 0
Maple Shade 1, Pitman 0 (SO)
Schalick 2, Haddon Twp. 0
Palmyra 5, Gloucester 2
Semifinals
Maple Shade (13-4-1) at Audubon (17-1-2)
Schalick (15-4) at Palmyra (17-3)

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE — Emily Miller has scored a lot of goals for the Schalick girls soccer team this year – a lot of goals – but none more important than the two she got Monday afternoon.

The senior striker banged home goals 46 and 47 to lift the Cougars over Haddon Twp. 2-0 in the South Jersey Group I playoffs. The Cougars (15-4) now play at Palmyra (14-4-2) in the sectional semis Thursday.

‘These are two very important goals that I had today,’ Miller said.

Indeed. The first goal came with 4:16 gone in the match when she settled a long punt from goalie Carly Hayman and broke in untouched. She clinched the Cougars’ seventh straight victory when she took a pass from Cali Fisler, raced against the wind and beat the keeper with 23 seconds to play.

It was Fisler’s 22nd assist this season, extending her single-season school record. Fourteen of the assists have been on goals by Miller.

“This is super exciting,’ Miller said. ‘I had low hopes for today, I’m not going to lie. I had a low mindset. I wasn’t too confident, but I put it away early and I finished it off at the end of the game.”

With 47 goals, she has more goals than half the teams in the 16-team sectional field, including two that reached the quarterfinals. Fifty goals “is on the back of my mind,” she admitted, but she won’t be too upset if she misses the mark because she already has hit her main goal – breaking the single-season school record for goals.

“I think if she continues to put her head down and do the work that she knows she can do, I think the goal tally is going to be endless for her,” Schalick coach Will Kemp said.

You might say her big season is making up for lost time. She broke her collarbone as a freshman and stayed out as a sophomore (when the Cougars won the sectional), but returned to the pitch last season and “just fell in love with (soccer) again.” But it might not be her first love. When she’s not playing soccer, she’s racing dirt bikes, and that might be her true calling.

Hayman, meanwhile, usually makes her biggest contributions in the back of the field. With her hands in a game where nobody else can use theirs.

She assisted the Cougars in another way Monday — with literally a big assist. 

The senior goalie drove a wind-blown punt well across the midline, sending Miller on a semi-breakaway. It was Hayman’s third assist this year –  first on a punt – and seventh of her career.

“Her foot has helped us multiple times in the past,” Miller said.

“I was surprised it went that far, but I was really happy I got an assist and we got a goal early on,” Hayman said. “I knew (Miller) was going to get to it and when she had it I knew she was about to score this and I was already jumping around by the time she did.”

“Carly’s a student of the game,” Kemp said. “She understands weaknesses in teams and understands how to exploit them. Her distribution skills have always been at the top, especially with her feet, and that’s one of the reasons I put her in the field in certain matches.”

Returning to her more traditional role of stopping shots, she kept the Hawks out of the net, making 17 saves in her 12th shutout and third in a row. She took a point-blank shot in the breadbasket about nine minutes after Miller’s first goal and later watched the wind blow a Haddon Twp. shot past the right post.

She was even sharper in the second half when the Hawks (8-10-2) played with the wind. She withstood several corner kicks dodged a bullet with 17 minutes left when the Hawks got one over her head and hit the crossbar. And the defensive four in front of her turned back a final threat in the last minute, with Athena Eberl making a nice sliding tackle deep in the corner to dislodge Jaylene Peebles from the ball.

The clearing ball on that play sent Miller off to her second goal.