‘Best season’ ends early for Strath Haven
NETHER PROVIDENCE >> For a while it looked like Strath Haven and Villa Maria Academy might have to decide their District 1 Class
3-A soccer quarterfinal playoff with penalty kicks in front of the crowd beginning to show up for the Friday night football game.
The teams were scoreless in the 77th minute of a game where the temperature was dropping quicker than any expectation that two more
15-minute overtimes would produce a winner. And then it happened.
Around 5:15 p.m., Villa Maria senior Sarah Goldblum hauled in a pass and powered down the right side of the field. Goldblum rocketed a shot off goalie Claire Wolgast, and the ball hit another defender before finding the net with 2:46 left in what would be a 1-0 Hurricanes victory.
It was the fourth straight win for ninth-seeded Villa Maria (9-9-2), which is one win over fifth-seeded Nazareth Academy from reaching the state tournament.
“I had a lot of those in the game and they just hadn’t worked out,” Goldblum said of the breakaway rush. “This one I got in front of the girl. I was one step quicker the girl. I saw the goal and I said to myself, ‘this is it. If it’s not now, it’s not happening.’ And when the ball hit the goalie, my jaw just dropped. But the other team kicked it in. It’s exciting. They were the top seed and we were the ninth seed. It’s a major win for us.”
The Panthers (13-4-2) won’t let go of this loss for a while. They controlled the first half, outshooting their opponent 8-4. There probably wouldn’t have been any heroics in the final minutes had Hurricanes goalie Alyssa Kinmartin not made a couple of sensational saves.
Seconds after Kinmartin stopped a shot from point blank range, Panthers senior Serena Elia blasted the rebound off the goalie with
10:02 to go in the first half. The game was stopped to be sure the keeper had sustained only a bruise. Talk about taking one for the team.
“I saved the second one with my face,” said Kinmartin, who registered six saves on the day. “I did it for the older girls. I’m a freshman and I know how important this was for them.”
The Hurricanes seemed to have more energy in the second half, and it showed in the offensive numbers. They outshot the Panthers,
5-3. Goldblum was very active on the attack.
“We just hung in there,” Villa Maria coach Gary Christopher said. “We played pretty well in the second half. They’re an awesome team, there’s no question about that. They may not have thought we were as good as we are, maybe. But they’re awesome, that’s for sure. So, we’re pretty proud of the win.”
Before the own goal, the Panthers had a handful of chances in the second half to take the lead.
Sophomore Gianna Zweier showed her power on a couple of free kicks. One of them was a give-and-go, freeing her for a blast from about 25 yards that hit the top of the Villa crossbar. Later there was a thump that skidded over the crossbar and ricocheted into the net from behind. It fooled the crowd, and for a moment, the goaltender, into thinking the Panthers had taken the lead.
About six minutes later, the bottom fell out for the Panthers.
“I thought our intensity was good and we kept it up,” senior captain Gretchen Crow said. “But stuff happens. The ball ricocheted in and that happens. We still played hard. We maintained our intensity even after that. The girls played well all season. I’m happy with that.”
It wasn’t the ending Crow, fellow captain Abby McPherson or Elia desired. And it certainly wasn’t what Panthers coach Gino Miraglia envisioned, as his young team was prevailing in onegoal games for a chunk of their first season in Class 3A.
“We had a couple opportunities in the first half and we just didn’t put it away,” Miraglia said. “And Villa Maria didn’t stop playing. We won a lot of close games, 1-0. We couldn’t get that goal today and they did. But I couldn’t be prouder of the girls and the good senior leadership we have here. Thirteen wins? Last year we were kind of losing a lot of those games. We turned that around a little bit but we didn’t finish tonight and they did.”
The own goal hurt. So did the wasted opportunities. The latter will haunt the coach more than the former.
“We teach our girls to go to the ball and play hard,” Miraglia said. “I would never fault anyone for that. I couldn’t tell from my angle if it was going in or not but regardless I want girls going to the ball. That’s what they’re supposed to be doing.”
All of that said, the sudden ending was difficult for the seniors. But it was a good kind of difficult.
Crow and MacPherson are unlikely to play on the college level. That won’t be as tough as not being around their teammates.
“Definitely the best season that I’ve been a part of on this team,” MacPherson said. “I really felt close to all of the girls we played with. It was a really close team and I had fun every day, even just at practice when we were running. Everything was just fun because of the group of people. And that’s not something that everyone gets. And I’ll never forget that.”
The same with Crow. Asked what she’d remember most about this Panthers team, she became choked with emotion. “Everything,” she said. That’s what the Panthers gave each other this season.