Bruins do everything but win, falling to Whitman

UPPER MARLBORO —With just under three minutes to play in the second overtime, Broadneck’s John Vaaler made yet another outstanding save, denying Walt Whitman a winning goal. He and his teammates had hung with and aggravated the Vikings for nearly 100 minutes, and penalty kicks would be the deciding margin for a tremendously played game by both sides.

Unfortunately, Vaaler and the Bruins were slightly on the short end, falling to Whitman in penalty kicks, 4-3, after a scoreless regulation and overtime on Saturday.

“I thought that Broadneck played a perfect game,” Whitman coach Dave Greene said. “They did absolutely everything to get the game to where it was penalty kicks. Their goalkeeper came up big when he had to. It was a great game.”

It was the kind of scoreless draw that soccer fans appreciate. The pace was relentless, opportunities were abundant and big defensive stops were aplenty.

“We faced an outstanding Whitman team that had the run of play for long stretches, but I thought we hung in there and I thought we controlled the game at times, especially in the first half, where we generated some scoring opportunities,” Broadneck coach Sean Tettemer said. “We had a great gameplan that we followed very well.”

Broadneck (16-3) did have multiple chances in the first half. Its best came with just under four minutes to play when Tyler Madairy’s shot was stopped by Whitman’s Sam Nordheimer. Three minutes later, a cross barely eluded Joey Orofino’s head in the box. Meanwhile, Zain Memon missed out on a doorstep header for the Vikings (15-1) in the 18th minute, Whitman’s best opportunity in the first 40 minutes. Broad-

neck's defense kept a powerful Whitman offense from seriously threatening in the final third most of the night, despite gaining more and more possession as the contest wore on.

In addition to Vaaler's work in goal, Aaron Lawrence, Orofino, Madairy, Reilly Joyce and others had one of the best comprehensive performances in their varsity careers.

“You can't single out one performance; they were tremendous as a group at the back,” Tettemer said. “Our two holding midfielders did a great job supporting them as well, and they were playing against guys who are well-accomplished players. We wanted to come out and match their level of physical play and then be sound defensively.”

Roughly 10 minutes into the second half, Whitman began pressing the game up a notch, and controlling play more. The Vikings actually scored in the 53rd minute, but were called offside on the sequence. Vaaler had to come off the line twice in succession to clear Whitman chances. Ryan Machado-Jones could not finish on the doorstep against Vaaler in the 57th and Nathan Rosen's

attempt went just wide in the 68th minute.

“I felt like we did some very good things, and then I felt like we played into their hands a little bit,” Greene said. “I thought we had some moments of brilliance where we just did not finish. We were breaking them down a bit because we were combining a bit more and not trying to do so much individually. I thought we won the game there at the end of overtime, but their kid made an unbelievable save.”

Vaaler made a couple additional saves in the two overtimes. When penalty kicks came, Broadneck went first and missed. Rosen, Andrew Goldsholle and Thomas Mande made the first three Whitman attempts. Louie Kerdock, Madairy and Ethan Loftis made attempts 2-through-4 for the Bruins, and then Machado-Jones went high for the Vikings. Everything was even going to the fifth round, but Broadneck was stopped by Nordheimer. Memon calmly stepped to the spot and converted, sending Whitman to the state final to play Urbana.

“Our guys were phenomenal tonight,” Tettemer said. “We did not back down and I never had to worry about these guys being ready to play. This group was always ready to compete.”