Gov. Mifflin falls in BCIAA title game
Tigers improve to 20-0, deal Mustangs first loss in Oct.
The Fleetwood girls’ soccer team defeated Governor Mifflin 1-0 on Thursday night to claim the BCIAA championship, accumulating an impressive 20-0 record in the process.
“This is the ultimate,” said Fleetwood coach Mike Boyer. “This is what we worked all year long for.”
It was a matchup of the tournament’s No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, and a matchup of two teams on long winning streaks. Fleetwood entered the game unbeaten in 19 outings. Governor Miff lin had not lost a game in nearly a month. They had won 9 straight games entering the championship game, with their last loss coming at Twin Valley on Sept. 26.
With both teams on hot streaks, the game was largely evenly matched, with both defenses performing well and just one goal separating them after 80 minutes.
The game’s lone goal was scored by Fleetwood senior Alexis Nowatarski with just 3 seconds left in the first half. Nowatarski netted the ball from the middle of the box after a pass from senior Emily LeVan. It was Nowatarski’s sixth goal of the year and LeVan’s fifth assist this season.
It was a tale of two halves for the Tigers. Fleetwood dominated possession for most of the first half and spent the majority in Governor Mifflin’s territory. Despite the maintained pressure in the first half, the Governor Mifflin defense yielded just one goal and limited Fleetwood’s scoring opportunities.
Fleetwood threatened to score several times in the first half. Senior Sydney Lobb — who leads Berks with 21 goals this season — nearly scored on a first half shot that hit the crossbar. Fleetwood totaled four shots, three of which
were on goal.
Fleetwood spent the second half on its heels, playing defense for the last 40 minutes. Governor Mifflin’s Jeyda Duran-Coronado and Gillian Maack maintained
near-constant pressure in Fleetwood territory during the second half.
Governor Mifflin’s best scoring chances came from second
half corner kicks. The Mustangs took four corner kicks throughout the game. Perhaps the most pivotal moment of the game occurred midway through the second half. Governor Mifflin took a corner kick that led to two shots on goal from within 5 yards of the net. Fleetwood goalie Riley Scepansky made saves on both shots to maintain the Tigers slim lead.
“We were really worried about corners,” said Boyer. “They score a lot of their goals off of corner kicks and we can improve on our corner kick defense. We stopped
two important shots off of corners.”
Scepansky had a strong performance in net, finishing with four saves.
Governor Mifflin took six shots, four on target.
Mustang goalie Kyra Hartman made two saves in the game.
Fleetwood, the No. 1 seed in the BCIAA girls soccer playoffs, defeated 8-seed Kutztown (6-0) and 4-seed
Wilson (1-0, 5-4 in penalty kicks) to reach the championship game.
Governor Mifflin entered the playoffs as the 2-seed and defeated 7-seed Schuylkill Valley (5-0) and Twin Val-
ley (4-1) before facing Fleetwood.
Fleetwood (20- 0, 10- 0) and Governor Mifflin (14-7, 8-2) will head to the District 3 tournament.
The Tigers are the top
seed in Class 3Aandwere set to face Palmyra in the first round on Oct. 24. The Mustangs are the No. 7 seed in Class 4A and were matched with No. 10 Red Lion on Oct. 26.