Neshaminy edged Central Bucks West in penalty kicks to advance to Tuesday's PIAA Class AAA semifinal game. To view photos of all the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Neshaminy Advances in penalty kicks over Central Bucks West
By: Ben Winderman
After 110 minutes of sometimes exquisite and other times savage soccer, Central Bucks West and Neshaminy were still scoreless.
As the players prepared for PK’s, it was at least reasonable to expect some goals finally, but even during the shoot-out, the net was hard to find. The Redskins actually failed to convert on their first three attempts but somehow still found a way to win. Timely goalkeeping from McKenna Mullin and the clutch shots of Megan Schafer and Katie Suchodolski spelled victory for the Redskins. When #9, the Skins' junior midfielder, buried the fifth and final shot, her teammates buried Schafer in a pile triumph. The exhausted Bucks trotted immediately to their goalkeeper, showing class instead of despair.
Neshaminy advanced by the unlikely score of 0-0 (2-1 in Penalties) to the state semifinals on Tuesday.
“I don’t even know what to say,” smiled an elated Neshaminy coach Rachel Clemens. “I might fall down.”
Sam O’Donnell, Neshaminy’s senior center back, was more composed.
“I just believe in all of our shooters, and Megan and Katie came through,” she said.
Shooters, however, took a back seat on this day to both team’s goalkeepers. Mckenna Mullin of the victorious Redskins not only saved three PK’s, she also stopped West’s Shae McCarty in the 64th minute of play with a truly brilliant stop.
“Mckenna (Mullin) was on in goal today,” said O’Donnell, who’s nursing a knee injury of her own.
It’s a torn meniscus or something like that,” O’Donnell shrugged.
As for West’s goal keeper Grace Bendon, any fan had to admire her courage. Playing on a badly injured leg, Bendon snatched high shots, turned away PK’s, distributed rationally, and was not beaten once from the run of play. In some respects Bendon and her West teammates deserved more than a bumpy bus ride home.
But disappointment or what could have been was the last thing that West Coach Chris Freudig was interested in talking about. The upbeat Freudig spoke enthusiastically about his team’s performance in Saturday's semifinal contest and praised the extraordinary group of players he was blessed with this season.
“I have never coached a team that gave me more enjoyment,” the Bucks coach said. “Personally, professionally, they achieved, they over-achieved, and they always made it fun. We had Grace (Bendon) obviously playing with injury, but we also had Gwen (Harvey) playing with a cracked rib, Quin McNamara injured but still contributing huge, especially versus Strath Haven, and Emily Grove whose ankle looks like some kind of a melon.”
The 22-year veteran West coach beamed with pride over his team’s willingness to sacrifice on the field and occasionally snack on the way home. Unfortunately, even Saturday's game saw West’s Erica Moyer go down, as she bravely met a Neshaminy challenge in her own defensive third. Bucks sophomore defender Holly Pyles patrolled that territory all game and made play after play to turn away the potent Redskin attack.
Regular time ended just as the game had begun with the Neshaminy’s sensational Megan Schafer making two big runs down the left flank, only to see the seams in the West defense close quickly. All game, Bucks defenders worked in concert with one another and limited Schafer to hard angles and long shots.
In between there was the ebb and flow of danger, frantic recovery, and a few missed opportunities. As the players lined up for overtime, no one cared what their districts seeds had been. Both teams were deserving, but only one could go home victorious.
“This is history for our program,” Neshaminy’s Clemens explained.
Her team will face a Cumberland Valley squad that beat Strath Haven and Lower Dauphin successively to reach the semifinals.
For now, however, there was a brief moment for collective joy.
“We’re very happy,” Clemens said. “I’m so happy for these girls. We will just keep taking it one game at a time. We know they’re good and we’ll expect a tough game.”
Clemens, who once played for Freudig, is one of the more generous and outgoing coaches around. She and her staff will surely have their team ready to compete. With players like Nicole Nisivoccia, Jess Kelly, Jamie Mason, and Erin Farrell, Neshaminy has a supporting cast of players around Schafer who play with courage and incredible stamina. Their bench is short but their desire is tremendously long.
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