Haverford stuns No. 1 Owen J. Roberts in penalty kicks

BUCKTOWN >> The record books will show Owen J. Roberts’ girls soccer team allowed just two goals all season. Thursday night, after 110 minutes of soccer, the Wildcats kept that record in tact.

It was another OJR shutout – their 19th – but there will be no more opportunities to extend that mark.

That has a great deal to do with Alison Durfee, Haverford’s senior goalkeeper.

Durfee stopped 13 shots over regulation and overtime before coming up with two more saves in a shootout to knock off Owen J. Roberts, 0-0 (3-0 in penalty kicks) in the second round of the District 1 Class 4A playoffs.

“It’s a cruel game,” Wildcats coach Joe Margusity said. “How else can you describe it? We didn’t allow a shot on goal all game ... but our season is over.”

Indeed, Owen J. Roberts (19-1-1) did dominate for much of the night, but it will be the No. 17 seed Haverford Fords (12-71) moving on to face Souderton in the district quarterfinals on Saturday.

The Wildcats pressured Durfee early and often, forcing her to make a pair of diving saves early in the first half and testing her with 14 corner kicks throughout the game.

“I have already been exposed to this much pressure during my four years on

varsity,” Durfee explained following a post-game celebratory scrum. ”I just needed to keep my head in the game and focus on the ball.”

Owen J. Roberts had a number of attempts to score some second-chance on those corners in the second half, but every time the dust would settle, Durfee would get up from the bottom of the pile, with the ball safely tucked under her arm.

The Wildcats continued to pressure her in the two overtime periods, but still couldn’t solve the senior, and sent the game into penalty kicks.

All three of the Fords’ penalty kicks were successful, with Annalena O’Reilly, Rebekah Cunningham and Alyssa Hayes getting credit for the markers. Durfee stoned two of the Wildcats’ shooters, and the home team’s other attempt sailed over the crossbar.

“I thought back to all of the saves I had during the game and said, ‘If I can make all those saves, I can do this,’” Durfee said. “I’m not a goalie who will guess where the ball is going. I will stare at the ball and throw my whole body at it once they kick it.”

Thursday marked the second time these two teams met in 2018. Owen J. Roberts knocked off the Fords last week, 1-0, a few weeks prior and that defeat certainly stayed with 17th-seeded Haverford as they prepared for the second matchup.

“We tightened up our defense,” Haverford coach Jeff Jackson said. “We knew it was going to be hard to score. We weren’t playing for penalty kicks, but when your best player is your goalie, it sometimes works out that way.”

“We talked all week about how we had to play better and win,” Durfee added. “We wanted to work hard and coming into tonight, we were prepared to give it our all because this game would make or break our season.”