To view action photos of both games, visit the photo gallery at the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Alex Frazier
It will be an all-SOL District One Soccer Championship.
No. 1-seeded Council Rock South edged No. 4 Central Bucks West 0-0, 4-3 in penalty kicks, and No. 7 Pennridge nipped No. 5 West Chester East 1-0 in double overtime Wednesday night at Souderton Area High School.
Central Bucks West had been practicing penalty kicks for nearly a month, anticipating the playoffs.
But the Bucks had never practiced against the Golden Hawks’ Lola Buonomo.
The C.R. South keeper had been splitting duties with Samantha Lawson. But after Tuesday’s practice, coach John Oberholtzer decided to go with Buonomo for the entire game.
“She’s a little better with penalty kicks,” he said.
We’ll never know for sure, but Buonomo confirmed her coach’s decision.
“Lola came up big,” said Oberholtzer. “She saves two goals. Wow! That’s not anticipated.”
In the shootout portion of the game, Buonomo saved the first two shots, allowing Alexa Crosier and Chris Vollrath to give the Hawks a 2-0 advantage. West’s Quin McNamara cut the lead in half with a shot inside the left post. Paige McDowell extended the lead to 3-1, but West hung in with a goal from Kelly Clark. After Paula Jurewicz’s shot sailed over the crossbar, West’s Lindsay Horst tied it aT three all.
It was up to Cara Deola, and she didn’t disappoint, striking the ball low and into the left side.
“I always have my same shot, but I can’t tell you my trick,” she said. “We practice it so many times. You can’t go up nervous.”
She’s had a lot of experience. It was kind of like last year’s district final against Central Bucks South.
“It’s my senior year and I want to do better than we did last year,” she said. “I knew I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I’m a leader and a senior captain.”
Ironically, South didn’t focus as much on penalty kicks as West had.
“We’re not a PK team,” said Oberholtzer. “We don’t spend our practice doing that. They scored four out of five. In practice I can tell you, they’re not four out of five.”
The Hawks controlled most of the game against the defensive-oriented Lady Bucks.
Had it not been for two impressive back-to-back saves by West keeper Bree Benedict in the first overtime, the game would never have reached PKs.
South also had an opportunity to end it in regulation but a shot out of a scrum at the left post chipped over the crossbar.
“Their defense packed it in so we had to shoot from farther out,” said Deola. “It gets frustrating when it gets deflected and it seems nothing goes our way.”
Despite outshooting the Bucks 14-4, Oberholtzer didn’t think his team generated the best chances.
“It was an obvious situation where we possessed the ball and couldn’t get behind them enough,” he said. “Their defense played superbly. We played to their strength by knocking the ball to their defenders. We didn’t generate the number of shots we needed.”
That the game went into penalty kicks at all is a credit to the Bucks’ strong defense, which won them the Continental Conference title.
“They came in with a very good game plan,” said Oberholtzer, “but they didn’t plan on Lola.”
•••
When center back Carly Henry came up injured, Pennridge coach Jorge Rodriguez had to make a few adjustments to his lineup. Basically he took two offensive players–Stevi Parker, who often plays center midfield and Bridgette Hess, who has been playing midfield and forward, and moved them to the back line.
That move certainly strengthened the defense, but it also weakened the attack.
“That’s one of the reasons we were struggling to create anything dangerous in the final third,” said Rodriguez. “But it was extremely difficult for them to score because I had players like Bridgette and Stevi back.”
With the game tied 0-0 headed into the second overtime, Rodriguez decided it was time to make a change, so he pushed Hess up top.
Brilliant move.
Less than four minutes into action, Maggie Butcher sent the ball up the left side behind the Viking defense to Natalia Pinkney, who then fed the ball to Hess on the right side. With the East keeper out, Hess was looking at a huge empty net, and she drove the ball into the right side.
“When that ball was coming across to me, I was like, ‘Clear your mind so you don’t miss,’” said Hess. “If you think about it too much, you choke on those chances.”
“I was a little mad at myself for not doing it sooner,” said Rodriguez. “If I did it in the second half, we may have finished earlier. I knew if I put her up good things would happen, but we would have given up something in the back.”
Although Pennridge had the better of play overall, it was mostly contested between the 18s.
The Vikings nearly scored with 13 minutes left in the first half, but the shot hit the crossbar.
Earlier in the game, Pennridge’s Kate Wiler missed an open goal.
Those were about the two best chances for either team to score in regulation.
This will be the second time in three years that the Lady Rams will be playing in the district final. Last spring they placed third.
Central Bucks West will take on West Chester East Saturday at 5:45 at Souderton with Council Rock South and Pennridge going at it at 8 p.m. for the title.
No. 1 Council Rock 0, No. 4 Central Bucks West 0 (Rock wins 4-3 on PKs)
Shots: CRS 14, CBW 4
Saves: Lola Buonomo (CRS) 3, Bree Benedict (CBW) 11
Corners: CRS 2, CBW 2
No. 7 Pennridge 1, No. 5 West Chester East 0 (2OT)
Shots: Pennridge 5, West Chester East 2
Saves: Ashley Schoellkopf (P) 2, Lauren Duguid (WCE) 5
Corners: Pennridge 1, West Chester East 2
Fouls: Pennridge 10, West Chester East 7
Tuesday’s play-in game
No. 24 Conestoga 1, No. 15 Central Bucks South 1 (Conestoga wins 5-3 on PKs)
The Titans took a 1-0 lead 20 minutes into the first half when Shannon Senour made a run down the sideline and crossed the ball to Ashley Volm, who headed it in.
Conestoga knotted the score 15 minutes into the second half on a laser shot from about 35 yards out.
“They were both beautiful goals,” said South coach Joe Bocklet.
Most of the game was played between the 18s as both teams were practically a mirror image of each other.
“They pressured the ball all over the place,” said Bocklet. “We played well but we weren’t getting many chances.”
Meghan Kaminski came up with a couple of nice saves to keep the Titans in the game.
“It was tough coming to their home field,” said Bocklet.
The Titans will make the trip to Conestoga again Thursday for a must-win game against No. 5 Strath Haven, a 2-1 loser to Unionville in the game for fifth and sixth. The loser goes home, while the winner will advance to states.
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