Neshaminy came up just short in its bid for a state title, falling to District 7 runner-up Norwin 1-0. Photos provided courtesy of Donna Longacre. To view photos of Friday’s action, please visit the Photo Gallery at the following link: http://sos.exposuremanager.com/g/111717_neshaminy_vs_norwin_piaa_final_dl
#7-2 Norwin 1, #1-3 Neshaminy 0
The storybook ending just wasn't meant to be.
Neshaminy's enthralling, almost improbable run to the state championship match ended on Friday, but not with the Redskins in possession of the winner's trophy. Given the start to the season with its 3-3-1 record and at one point sitting a negative result from dropping out of the District I playoff picture completely, it was a remarkable run.
“Coming into this season, we lost really good seniors, so we had to fill those spots, which was tough for us. We started off the year really shaky, and to be here is incredible. We just fell short," senior co-captain and defender Nicole Palmer said. “The atmosphere was incredible – our whole school pretty much came out. I’ll never forget it."
Facing a roster loaded with six Division I recruits, the Redskins simply put, matched them yard for yard. The start of the match, in a way mirroring their season, was a little shaky with the Knights of District 7 putting Neshaminy on its heels early.
But time after time, the back four and goalkeeper Riley Spingler kept coming up big. Palmer, the team's enforcer in the middle, played with her sleeves rolled up as is her custom, almost in defiance of the chill that descended upon HersheyPark Stadium once the sun set.
Flanking her, Genna Obringer, Hannah Stonkus and Alex Ziegler were just as stout. Norwin's attack was paced by Emily Harrigan, a Rutgers recruit and all Neshaminy did was get the senior so frustrated she was firing off 30-yard shots in the second half, hoping one would take a fortuitous curve.
"Our defense is just tremendous," Neshaminy coach Chelsea Lovelace said. "It has been all season. Norwin was very organized and knew exactly what they wanted to do with the ball every time they had it. To see our back line be able to handle it with what looked like ease, I'm sure it was very difficult for them, it was flawless on defense."
Spingler was likewise outstanding, making 10 saves in goal and few, if any of them, easy ones. She stopped two shots in the opening seven minutes, expertly read a swerving ball in the frozen Hershey air, falling on the ball in a scrum of legs and bodies and palming away another stinger from distance.
There wasn't much she could do on the eventual game-winner, which came off a corner kick with 6:27 remaining in the second half, but once the final horn sounded, Spingler wasn't thinking about herself.
"Us winning has to do with our goalkeeper," Obringer said. "We've never felt so comfortable with a goalkeeper in the back. We were fine. We said to ourselves – just hold them off if we need to and get it to penalty kicks. We're so comfortable and confident with Riley in penalty kicks."
"She was telling us to not get too down because we're the seniors," senior co-captain Jackie Ziegler said. "We were a little more upset. I think she's going to be a leader on the team next year, along with Hannah (Stonkus), she really stepped it this year."
Offensively, the effort was there but the endgame just wasn't. Neshaminy generated seven corner kicks, but couldn't cash in on any, the two most agonizing coming in the final few minutes where the ball pinged around the six-yard box but couldn't navigate its way over the goal line.
"In the first half we really weren't on top of it with the atmosphere and everything and it got to us a little bit," Ziegler said. "We had so many people here for us in the crowd. Our coaches told us at halftime to forget everything else and blank it out, and I think when we did that, we played a lot better."
"We said we had to keep working hard," Stonkus, also a co-captain, said. "We needed to keep working harder than we had the minute before and put one in the back of the net. Unfortunately, we just weren't able to."
Neshaminy has been money on corners this postseason, with Ziegler's pinpoint service often picking out a teammate, many times Palmer, in the mix and ending with a goal. Any good coach in soccer with extoll the value of set pieces, both offensively and as a defensive priority.
Sometimes, a defender has to cede a corner to prevent a quality shot. It's part of the game and, unfortunately for Neshaminy, so are goals that come on corners.
"That’s how it works. It’s always a corner. That’s why we told them to limit corners. You can’t. You can’t have zero corners in a game," Lovelace said. "So you just know something’s going to come. You’ve just got to get it out. Unfortunately, the ball found the back of the net.”
While the players weren't satisfied with the outcome, they did see the underlying accomplishments they had made just by getting to Hershey.
"In our four years, this is the best we've done, the farthest we've gone," Ziegler said. "Each girl is working for each other and putting out 100 percent. Last year, yeah we had a better record, but this year every girl was committed to the team and I'm so proud of each person putting it all out there."
It's no big surprise that Neshaminy's success started when the team came together and played for each other instead of just with each other. Picking out the top player for the Redskins was difficult because each game, it felt like at least four different players were deserving of those plaudits.
"A lot of teams that get here have three or four key players that you have to watch and we just don't have one or two, it's everybody," Obringer said. "If you look at our season, it's not like one girl had 20 goals, it's really spread out. Each one of us could be a dangerous player on the field."
The Redskins took the memories of the season with them as they left HersheyPark Stadium on Friday, but what they left on the field was an effort befitting the last month of its season.
"We told them before the game this was the last game, before today we were playing not knowing if we'd have another one," Lovelace said. "For this, we told them they had 80 minutes and to just leave it all out on the field. You don't want to look back tomorrow, next week, a month from now and wish you would have made that run, slid for that ball."
Neshaminy was last in the state final in 2013, when the Redskins won the old 3A classification title and kicked off a five-year string of an SOL team playing in the last game of the season. With CB West (2014), CB East (2015) and CB South (2016) bridging the gap between Neshaminy appearances and including Pennridge's appearance in 2011, it's an unprecedented run for the league.
Neshaminy 0-0 0
Norwin 0-1 1
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