CB West defeated Canon McMillan 2-1 in overtime to capture the PIAA Class AAA state title at Hersheypark Stadium on Saturday. Photos provided by Marge Bullock. Click here or on any of the photos to go to her gallery.
Mount the Bucks 8 Pointed Trophy
By Ben Winderman
HERSHEY – At halftime of Saturday night’s state title game, as the contestant from Canon McMillan defeated the contestant from CB West in the dizzy bat(less)/score-a-goal contest, a collective groan came from the once boisterous West student section.
Based upon a Sabrina Bryan goal off of an Abigail Gillespie clearance 32 seconds into the match, the midway scoreboard at Hersheypark Stadium advertised a 1-0 advantage for the Canon-McMillan Macs. While West coaches Jorge Rodriguez, Chris Shank, Danielle Webber, Katerina Axiotis, and Bree Benedict rallied their players confidence in the locker room, the West fans stomped their cold feet for fortitude. Armed with pent up spirit, West is Best pride, and an antlered trophy that travels with these Doylestown diehards, the second half offered the restoration of pride for a triumphantly mad rush onto the field to celebrate black and gold glory.
In the 74th minute of play and their team still clinging to the one-goal lead, Macs fans offered the World Cup popularized “I Believe” chant.
It backfired!
West supporters went Buck-Wild when senior Shae McCarty knotted the game at 1-1 with a genius strike from 20 out that rose into the top left corner. With 5:50 left in regulation, suddenly no one cared about dizzy bats.
It took the Bucks another 11 minutes of passion, another few Grace Bendon restarts, a Shae McCarty head ball, a Lindsey Morgan strike, and a Jillian Nolan finish for the scoreboard to announce a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory for the team wearing white jerseys with gold numbers. And although only a few slippery West students bypassed security on their way to the turf, the rest were content to chant “CB WEST – CB WEST –CB WEST,” loud enough to hear from Hershey all the way home. It was a fitting euphemism for “I believe.”
Back home, the champs were treated to a fire-engine escort through the streets, a small shiny token of the appreciation this community has for its soccer players. It won’t be their last parade. The yellow busses for students – stenciled with Central Bucks Schools District – crossed Court Street independently, headed down Lafayette past smoker’s corner, turned left on Stan MacFarlane Lane, and rambled to a stop alongside War Memorial Field.
Those weary kids, hoarse from huzzahs, walked to the parking lot next to the stadium and drove home or elsewhere, not necessarily noticing the dark fields across the street. The Cow Pasture – where a wall-ball kickboard used to stand leaning, where Mark Klein started the YMCA soccer camp and the likes of Mike and Maggie Moyer played on Friday afternoons for Parents Day, where Gavin Graham with his homemade wooden goals and players (East and West) would be Tuesday and Thursday evenings until dark, where in the late 80’s Dale Lennox coached the first of these Lady Buck bruiser squads so that players like Tracey Taylor didn’t have to try out for the boys team, where Coach Chris Freudig established West as a seven-time state championship program, his presence evident in Hershey Saturday night with Shae McCarty, Grace Bendon, and even assistant coach Bree Benedict.
The sign paying tribute to those championship teams which Coach Freudig raised has now been updated by West Coach Jorge Rodriguez. Seven has become eight, and this one – the first since girls’ soccer consolidated itself as a fall sport – might need its own sign.
“We had the turning point of our season out on those fields,” Rodriguez explained. “Grace (Bendon) had really been working on the accuracy of her service (on restarts) and the work had paid off, but it didn’t matter because no one wanted to get on the end of it.
“One muddy practice she served up four or five excellent balls in a row, and when none of them were headed by her targets, she just went crazy. She ran into the box challenging her teammates, and I drove the next ball in her direction. Grace launched herself at it and got her head to it, and although it didn’t go anywhere towards the goal, she had made her point.”
Rodriguez finished the story by saying that his players scored the next four or five balls that Bendon played in, and the team proceeded to apply their newfound willingness to get on the end of her services.
Both of West’s goals Saturday night came as a result of Bendon’s bending balls, and on the game winner, it was senior Shae McCarty who headed the restart back across the box to junior Lindsey Morgan, who settled, volleyed, and beat C-M keeper Kyra Murphy, so that sophomore Jillian Nolan could finish off the Big Macs for good. Incidentally Nolan’s dad (Cory) was no stranger to the cow pasture and spent many muddy days with Coach Mike Pettine’s state champion West football teams, practicing way back behind the leaning kickboard where only the brave dared to be.
Bravery was on full display in the second half as Rodriguez challenged his squad to make a “mental adjustment” against a very technical foe.
“We needed to possess,” Rodriguez said. “If we had scored first, I (would have been) so happy to use Devin Dickinson in this game. She was just cleared on Thursday and really is one of our toughest, best one vs one defenders, but because we gave up that early goal, we had to rely on more technical midfielders like Lindsey (Morgan), Ellie Manca, Jillian (Nolan), and Olivia Kirchner.”
Rodriguez praised Kirchner for her energy.
“Olivia covered so much ground!” West’s coach shook his head. “Ellie (Manca) too – they all bought in. We learned from the first Pennsbury game that we couldn’t just defend, and really all week we hardly mentioned anything but how to possess.”
That commitment to connect grew in term of importance and urgency because after 32 seconds of play, the Bucks needed a goal just to tie.
Sophie McKnight was one of those players who’s been a consistently strong ball winner but Saturday night showed off her technical ability alongside her muscle. When asked how she summoned the energy to keep pushing forward even when minutes and chances were both in short supply, the senior midfielder said with an honest simplicity, “We really wanted to win.”
Rodriguez and his staff also adjusted tactically at the half, switching formation to a 4-4-2 and inserting Jillian Nolan, #53, to play with McCarty up top. Number six, Lindsey Morgan, also was called upon to w-man the right flank, and immediately, these players impact was visible. Olivia Kirchner, Abbie Mulhern, Maddie Shaw, and Taylor Burke combined through the midfield as the Bucks showed their ability to tug on the Macs’ security. Add Kelly Creamer, a now centrally focused Mary Kate Vinkler, and ‘there’s that news van again’ Carmen Telesco, and West began to create chances.
In the 68th minute, Vinkler broke in on the left but C-M keeper Kyra Murphy was strong to the play, and the ball bounced out for a six. In the 71st minute, McCarty carried Gillespie and left back Ashlyn Whipple into the Macs’ box with her, but the ball deflected into Murphy’s hands.
The Macs were by no means hedging their attack, and the mellifluous play of Allie Thomas, Cheyenne Tress, Alena Poljak, and Sydney Keremes continued to find forwards Sabrina Bryan and Lauren Hess on dangerous runs. The Macs created several second half corner kicks but insisted on driving the ball into Bendon’s domain. The West keeper exposed her avatar power and was not going to be beaten by these humans from District 7. In front of her, Mackenzie Carroll, Allie Walsh, Emily Munchak, and Holly Pyles were pure class.
“Communication is the key,” explained Walsh, West’s freshman back. “We settled into our normal game after their quick goal, and as the game went on, we were able to play like we usually do.”
“When I was up, she (Allie) was back,” nodded the senior Carroll, who used all of her know how to keep the game within reach.
Sabrina Bryan, #10 for the Macs, is a star in the making, and Allie Thomas is a galaxy.
In overtime, West was awarded three direct kicks that Bendon could drive into the Macs’ box, but the first two times, Abigail Gillespie won the initial head ball after head ball, and C-M was able to clear. On the third, however, Bendon drove the ball left of the C-M center-back, and teammate Shae McCarty headed horizontally to Lindsey Morgan. Jillian Nolan finished the job and furthered the legend. A lot of special people and places have taken part, so many not mentioned here. The ones that are participated in a way that we’ll remember and in a fashion that we will celebrate.
Congratulations 2014 CB West Girls Soccer – PA AAA State Champs (sans tattoos), maybe reconsider, there is plenty of space in the pasture for another sign.
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