SK eliminates Cumberland

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — After upsetting No. 7 Barrington in the preliminary round last Tuesday, No. 10 Cumberland fell, 2-0 ,in the Division I quarterfinals to No. 2 South Kingstown Sunday night at Broad Rock Middle School.

“We were confident coming in,” Clipper oach John Hoxsie said. “And we had a game plan. We played them at home earlier, and they beat us 2-0 on a corner kick and a penalty kick. We felt like when they came to our house, they didn’t really beat us in the flow of the game.

“We were going to play them man-to-man in the midfield,” Hoxsie continued. “And just try to get balls high to those three attackers of ours.”

With the Rebels (11-1-4 Division I) coming off of a bye week and over a week removed from their last competition, Cumberland (6-6-5) was hoping to catch powerful SK a bit rusty and off their game. SK was somewhat slow to get their attack going but once they put a few goals on the board they found a confident stride, earning their 10th defensive shutout and second over the Clippers.

“We haven’t played in over a week and a half,” SK coach Scott Rollins said. “It was going to take a little while to get back into it. You can only generate so much energy playing against yourself in practice. We played hard from start to finish.”

The Rebels took control early with a few missed chances before making it 1-0 in the 20th minute. Freshman Jamisen Hill checked into the game at forward and immediately made an impact, taking a nice feed from junior Sarah Sorlien,Hill stuck the ball in the right side of the net. Clipper sophomore goalie Juliette Vemmer, who had 13 saves, went down to stop a shot, and Hill snuck the second chance by her.

“They’re a super quality team over there,” Hoxsie continued. “They’ve been like that for a couple of years. They have a lot of talent over there – I think they’ve given up eight goals in 16 games counting [Sunday]. They are tough. They are up at the top of the table for a reason.”

The game was 1-0 at the break, held there with the help of Vemmer who punctuated the first-half with a save against the right post. Vemmer was a big part of the reason SK was limited, as she made a number of fine stops in different threatening scenarios. Junior Faith Hutchins stopped seven in goal for SK, getting SK into the double digits for season shutouts.

“It’s the playoffs,” Rollins said. “So everyone’s a little nervous. [Our] offense got better as the game went on. But in the next game, if we have early chances we need to turn one into three to have an easier second half.”

Early in the second half, senior midfielder Johna Burton made it, 2-0, on an assist from junior Claire Lidsky.