Northmen knocked out by underdog Chargers
No. 2 seed bounced short of D-II final
JOHNSTON – Junior midfielder Skylah Sullivan sat alone on the cold, metal team bench at Johnston High’s Mayor Joseph M. Polisena Stadium on Wednesday night, head in her hands and sobbing.
Nearby, senior co-captain Maddie Reynolds hugged classmate Skylar Mette as she cried into her shoulder.
Those emotional scenes and others played out in vivid color after North Smithfield High endured a controversial 2-1 double-overtime upset loss to sixth-seeded Chariho Regional in the Division II semifinals.
Instead of the Northmen, the No. 2-ranked team in the division, attending Saturday’s championship final, it will be the Chargers, who climbed to 12-4-2 overall. They will take on another upset victor, No. 4 Moses Brown, at 2 p.m. at Cranston Stadium.
The Quakers, by the way, needed a 4-2 shootout victory to oust top-ranked Pilgrim, 2-1.
As for Chariho’s clinching tally, that came in rather controversial fashion, as officials whistled NS senior keeper Gianna Capracotta for handling the ball just outside the right top corner of the penalty box with under 3:20 left in the final OT.
That call gave sophomore Bella Pezzullo a 23-yard direct kick from that alleged spot. She laced a try that seemingly was headed outside the left post, but the ball apparently caromed off a Northman and sliced back into the goal with 3:09 remaining in the second OT.
The Northmen tried in vain knot it and force penalty kicks.
“They called a hand ball outside the box, but there’s a million lines
to on this field,” stated head coach Nicole Higginbotham after her lengthy post-game chat with her teary players. “This actually happened to her at this same field when we were playing Johnston during the regular season, but (Gianna) was way outside (the box).
“Now, as for this? I can’t see the 18 (yard line) from this far away, but according to the call, I guess she was outside the box,” she added. “My message to the girls afterward was to keep their heads up, that this was a tough way to close, but we had such a good run this season, and we have to much to be proud of.
“We went 14-2-0 during the regular season and finished 15-3. I can’t say enough about how hard these girls worked all year.”
Still, truth be told, Chariho controlled the tempo for most of the game, doing with by winning more 50-50 balls, disrupting the Northmen’s midfield play and also executing a “full field press.” It seemed like every time NS would put something together of
Photo by Ernest A. Brown fensively, a Chariho player would be there to intercept or boot it from harm.
As a result, the Chargers scored first. With only 11:30 remaining before intermission, junior Spencer Shiels sent a low pass to senior Emily Seekell deep on the right and just pitched the ball over Capracotta for the 1-0 lead.
Exactly 5:20 later, NS senior midfielder Skylar Mette and a Charger collided at midfield, and it appeared Mette may have suffered a separated shoulder, but she later returned.
It nevertheless didn’t take long for the Northmen to knot it. With just 6:06 elapsed in the final session, Sullivan took a feed from sophomore Sadie Crozier and lofted an approximate 17-yard attempt over Chariho senior Alison Klein.
The two continued to battle back and forth the rest of regulation, though it looked as if NS would clinch it with 1:53 left in the first overtime. Sullivan sprinted past a defender to cause a breakaway down the middle and smoked a shot at Klein; she made the stop, but then the ball caromed away from her.
She quickly located it behind her and pounced before it could cross the goal line.
That merely ish.
“Our back four, and Sadie and Sully, just weren’t on (Wednesday night),” Higginbotham said. “They just weren’t their normal selves; they just weren’t. They were taking bad touches, not finding each other. They normally can find each other at the drop of a dime, without even looking up, but they couldn’t connect here.
“We were passing it right to them,” she added. I don’t know if it was nerves or the late start time (due to the extreme length of the Moses Brown-Pilgrim semi, NS’s clash began over 40 minutes late), but we just weren’t ourselves. Did the cold have something to do with it? I think that’s the last thing. I think it was starting late and not getting the proper warm-up.”
Chariho
North Smithfield
First half: CHAR –
28:30.
Second
46:06.
First overtime: No scoring.
Second overtime: CHAR – Anabelle
86:51.
Shots on goal: Chariho 9, North Smithfield 7. Goalie saves: Alison Klein (CHAR) 6, Gianna Capracotta (NS) 7.
half: NS –
set up the wild fin
**
1–0–0–1–2 0–1–0–0 –1 Emily Seekell (Spencer
Skylah
Sullivan
(Sadie
Shiels)
Crozier)
Pezzullo
(una.)