Riverhounds U-19 team captures National Cup

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With three starters out with injuries from the season and two more players hurt throughout the U.S. Club Soccer National Cup, the U-19 Riverhounds women’s team entered the championship with one bench player.

A slim margin for error for the injury-plagued team.

The Riverhounds offense had dominated its way through the tournament in Westfield, Ind., which it entered as a wildcard team, but was stumped by Lake Grove-Newfield SC Tsunami’s physical defense in the first half.

“We were a little fatigued from the tournament, too, and that’s another thing I said to the girls before the game is to be patient, keep it simple,” Riverhounds coach and academy director Scott Gibson said. “Let the ball do the work kind of thing. And they’re all very technically gifted soccer players.”

The field made it difficult to play the team’s style of play, controlling the pace and getting the ball down, Gibson said, but the Riverhounds eventually pulled ahead.

One goal off a set piece and another goal off a breakaway later, and the Riverhounds had a 2-0 win, the fourth time in the past five years a Riverhounds team has won a national cup final.

The team usually puts up more shots and goals, Gibson said, but a shot hit the post early and Tsunami’s defense played deep, making it hard for forward to penetrate. Had the Riverhounds gotten a goal early and established a rhythm, it may have been a more typical display of offense.

“The girls were, I think, a little frustrated that the other team was very defensiveminded on us,” Gibson said. “We couldn’t quite break them down. So going into that half, we just had to be patient, knew that we’d get the chance and once we got the one chance we’d take that. Our girls certainly settled down.”

Facing the wind in the second half, the first goal off a set piece, which created a scramble in the box, came from Emily Arnold. The second goal off a breakaway came from Courtney Coholich.

Missing their strong center back, Alyssa Victor, meant the Riverhounds had to switch their formation from three defenders to four.

Winning the championship while missing so many key players and with a few players playing injured, according to forward Emily Harrigan, showed the team’s perseverance. Harrigan will be a senior at Norwin in the fall.

“I think it definitely shows the heart that our team had because we really had to dig deep, obviously,” Harrigan.

For most of the team, it’s their last trip to the national cup as they’ll be too old to play in it next year. The group seized its opportunity to get its final win.

“We came in with this mindset that ‘This is our last hurrah,’” Harrigan said.