Clippers advance on PKs
Vemmer impressive in Cumberland win
BARRINGTON — No. 10 Cumberland went to Victory Field in Barrington and upset the No. 7 Eagles in a Division I preliminary playoff round. Cumberland rallied back twice to force overtime before beating the Eagles 3-2 in penalty kicks.
With the triumph, Cumberland moves on to the quarterfinals to play No. 2 seeded South Kingstown on Sunday at Curtis Corner at 5 o’clock.
“It feels really good,” Cumberland coach John Hoxsie said. “The last two years we played Barrington. We came here last year and tied 0-0. Then, they came to our house and beat us 2-0. So, the talk at halftime is, ‘We haven’t scored on these girls in two and a half games.’
“And, we kind of changed our formation in the second half. We got a spark up top. We were able to get one early and get another one late, so it felt good. The girls worked hard. They fought that second half. It’s a job well done.”
The first goal came 12:19 in when Barrington senior defenseman Petra Bertoncini scored an unassisted tally after Clippers goalkeeper Juliette Vemmer stumbled while chasing down a loose ball.
The Clippers evened the score six minutes into the second half when sophomore striker Jenna Thomas blasted in a shot from the left side after a pass from Maddy Durkin.
Then, Barrington took a 2-1 advantage when with 16 minutes remaining, sophomore Grace Muccino scored after an assist from defenseman Audrey Gravelle.
Nonetheless, Cumberland knotted the game when with 9:09 left on the clock, junior midfielder Campbell Gothberg assisted in front to freshman Paige Vieira, who found the back of the net.
After two scoreless overtimes the match went to a shootout. There, Cumberland got goals from, Thomas, Vieira, and senior captain Emma Tziachris, while Vemmer was a stalwart in net denying all three of Barrington’s penalty shot attempts.
“I look at my players, and think, ‘Well they’re going to make their shots, so I have to make the saves,’” Vemmer said.
Vemmer saw just nine shots all night, but she was ready to roll when it came time for the shootout.
“I didn’t have a lot of action, but we built that momentum and that energy helps me build myself up even if I didn’t have a lot of action.”
The keeper was thrilled to get out of the first round and hopes to keep the winning going.
“It’s great,” Vemmer said. “Last year we didn’t make it past the first round. This year, we’re going in and we’re going hard. We’re doing great.”
Vemmer is convinced the Clippers have what it takes to knock off South Kingstown in the next round too.
“I feel like that if we build this momentum and keep it up and have a good mindset, that we’ll go in strong,” Vemmer said. “We’ll finish it.”
“South Kingstown is very good,” Hoxsie added. “We played them at our house this year. We lost 2-0, but I honestly told my girls after that game that it was the best game I’ve seen them play all year. So, we’re going to go in confident. We know that they’re very talented, but we’ll see how we do.”