Obst’s goal sends TCNJ to national title game
One more game.
It has been a brilliant 32-year career for The College of New Jersey women’s soccer coach Joe Russo and it is finishing up at the most deserving location.
The NCAA Division III National Championship game.
Julia Obst provided the goal as the Lions advanced to the final with a 1-0 win over Wesleyan in the national semifinal on Friday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C.
The Lions (21-0-2) meet Christopher Newport (21-0-1) for the national championship on Saturday in Greensboro with the game set to start at 2:30 p.m.
Wesleyan’s season ends with an 18-2-2 mark. This is the Lions’ first trip to the national championship game since 2017 (loss to Chicago) and a victory would be their fourth national title and first since 2000.
CNU, which is an affiliate member of the New Jersey Athletic Conference in football, advanced with a 1-0 overtime win over Loras.
“It’s always good when you can extend your season,” said Russo. “I have to congratulate Wesleyan, they were exceptional. It was not our best day and a lot of that had to do with the way Wesleyan approached the game. We grew into the game and our depth was instrumental in the second half.”
The game winner came in the 65th minute as Obst, the former Hopewell Valley High star, headed the ball into the left corner.
There have been plenty of goals in Obst’s amazing career, but this one is undoubtedly at the top.
“I got the second ball out of the air and it was like it was in slow motion,” said Obst. “I was just in awe that I was able to pull through and get the game-winning goal.”
It was a goal that came after Wesleyan just about dominated the first half, then in the second half if was a different TCNJ team on the pitch.
“At halftime we took a step back,” said Jess Hall, an All-America defender for the Lions. “We kind of got dominated and we didn’t want this to be our last game. So, we knew that we had to go out there we everything we have, at this point the most important thing was heart and grit. We played for each other in the second half.”
Russo implored his team to just play its game at the intermission. He felt the Lions got lulled into the way Wesleyan wanted to play.
It was definitely a different pride of Lions on both ends of the field as they began to take control and the depth of the TCNJ bench took a toll on the aggressiveness Wesleyan showed in the first half.
The defense made Obst’s goal stand up. “This is what we have been working towards since the beginning of the season,” said Obst. “We are excited for tomorrow and we are going to do what we can in preparation for the finals. We are excited and we are going to try and keep the nerves down a little bit.”
The Lions have been a team that does a pretty good job of controlling the nerves and showing a ton of intestinal fortitude and a determined desire to win.
“I’ve been very fortunate and for this group to continue to play is something special,”
said Russo. “We hadn’t done anything in 18 months (Covid shutdown) and the season comes along and we get off to a great start and the wins just kept coming. We are fortunate and we are humbled by what has taken place and we have a huge task with Christopher Newport.”
Another huge task, one more time.