Girls Soccer – Wall, Colts Neck Advance to SCT Final
NEPTUNE – Wall senior Heather Arbachesky took a slow, deliberate and seemingly introspective walk from midfield to the penalty spot of Memorial Athletic Complex, the last walk that any player from the Wall or Freehold Boro girls soccer teams would take during the shootout round of Wednesday’s Shore Conference Tournament semifinal – that is, as long as Arbachesky made it.
Games against Freehold have brought nothing put pain and frustration over the past two years and as much as those memories might have lingered in the head of Arbachesky and every other returning Crimson Knights player watching her take that walk, they vanished with one decisive swing of Arbachesky’s right leg.
Freehold sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Cerio guessed correctly and dove to her left, but could only get her fingertips on Arbachesky’s shot that ended up in the right side netting, sending the No. 3 seed Crimson Knights into Wednesday’s Shore Conference Tournament championship game with a 3-2 win in a round of penalty kicks following a scoreless draw with its old rival.
“I knew it was up to me, the (referee) even said to me ‘It’s up to you,’ while we were at midfield, so that was it,” Arbachesky said. “I’ve been practicing and practicing to make sure I was ready for a moment like this and fortunately, I put enough on it to get it past (Cerio).”
During the 2012 and 2013 seasons, with both teams playing in the Shore Conference Class B North division, Freehold beat Wall a combined five times in five meetings, including in the SCT quarterfinals. Arbachesky and the three other seniors on the Wall roster were freshmen the last time Wall defeated Freehold. Later that season, the Colonials defeated the Crimson Knights on penalty kicks in a scoreless NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III semifinal.
“This is huge for Wall, it’s very, very exciting for us, especially because we haven’t been this far in a long time,” Arbachesky said.
“We lost to them so many times – three times last season – that we just had to beat them,” sophomore goalkeeper Alex Panasuk said.
Prior to the decisive conversion, Panasuk saved the third and fourth Freehold shots and watched the fifth attempt sail over the frame, setting up a potential winning shot by Arbachesky. Senior Lindsay Cerio and junior Ashley Latona each made their shots to begin the round for Freehold.
“I had a good read on the second save I made and on the first one, I guessed wrong to the same side and just decided to go the other way on the shot and it worked,” Panasuk said.
“Alex is a beast,” Arbachesky said. “She’s a great, great goalie and we pretty much depended on her to win.”
Junior Jessie Maywalt and senior Abigail Musto each hit their kicks for Wall on the first and third attempts, respectively. Junior Dari Lyons hammered a shot off the crossbar on the second attempt and senior Danielle Gardner missed the fourth Wall attempt.
Gardner’s miss took Arbachesky back to last season, when she missed a penalty kick in a shootout against Hopewell Valley in the Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals and Gardner picked her up by making the winning kick in a 5-4 shootout win for the Crimson Knights.
“I missed my shot last year, but we ended up winning anyway because Danielle Gardner made hers,” Arbachesky said. “It felt good to be able to make mine and pick her up like she did for me.”
Prior to the shootout, Wall outshot Freehold 14-7 over 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime. Cerio saved eight shots to keep the Crimson Knights off the board, although neither team forced the opposing goalkeeper to make any sprawling saves to keep the game scoreless.
“Both defenses are really good and nobody wants to make a mistake,” Arbachesky said. “We always expect Freehold to have a good defense and we know we’re going to have to play hard for 80 minutes, and sometimes longer.”
Wall will take on another familiar foe in Saturday’s championship game at Memorial Athletic Complex when the Crimson Knights face top-seeded Colts Neck for the third time this season. Colts Neck mauled Wall, 5-1, in the first meeting and the Crimson Knights bounced back to hand the Cougars their only loss of the season, 3-2, in the second go-round.
“That first loss was really bad and we knew that if we were going to do anything this year, that could never happen again,” Panasuk said. “Then we beat them in overtime the second time, and it proved to us that we could beat them and that we had improved since the first game. That’s when we really started believing.”
Colts Neck Fights Off Brick Memorial
Colts Neck coach Doug Phillips has seen dominance from his 14-1 team over the course of the season, but more than dominance, he wanted to see toughness out of the top-seeded Cougars in their semifinal game Wednesday against No. 13 seed Brick Memorial at Memorial Athletic Complex.
He got just enough of each on Wednesday night.
Colts Neck stormed out to a two-goal lead and held off a fierce push by the Mustangs to lock down a 2-1 win and secure a spot in the SCT championship game for the first time in program history.
“All the talk going into this game for us was about being tough, especially mentally,” Phillips said. “We knew what to expect from (Brick Memorial). They get after you, they pressure you for 80 minutes and you’ve got to be winning to withstand that and go right back at them. I knew what kind of talent we have, but with so many underclassmen, we needed to see how tough we were. Tonight, I think we showed we are a tough team.”
Juniors Allison Russo and Bridgette King scored the two Colts Neck goals, with Russo striking first just 3:46 into the game off a corner kick. Sophomore Frankie Tagliaferri swung the ball into the box, where junior center back Amanda Visco headed the ball toward the goal before it was deflected by Brick Memorial goalkeeper Ciara Korber. Russo, who was also pushed up from her position in the back, positioned herself for the deflection and tapped the ball in for the game’s first goal.
“I tried to get in position for a rebound or a bounce and the ball just kind of appeared at my foot, so I tapped it in,” Russo said. “It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but it was a big goal to get an early lead. It’s a little nerve-wracking when me and Amanda push up and leave the back open, but we know it makes us dangerous on corner kicks and Amanda is also fast enough to recover.”
King walked the ball into the goal for Colts Neck’s second tally in the 16th minute. Freshman midfielder Kayla Lee sent a ball forward from 50 yards out and when the ball got past Korber, King was in position to finish the goal.
“I just saw the goal,” King said. “I made the run and when the ball got to me, it was just me in the goal, which is what you dream of. We had two great team goals and overall, it was a total team effort by everyone tonight.”
Brick Memorial bounced back quickly, scoring in the 26th minute and outshooting Colts Neck 4-0 over the final 25 minutes of the half. The Mustangs cut their deficit in half on a goal by junior Joriam Rivera, who fired a shot from 10 yards out on the right side after senior Madison Farley headed down a 50-yard free kick by senior Julia Kirkpatrick.
The Mustangs applied pressure through the second half as well, mostly in the form of their swarming, physical play. The Mustangs earned five corner kicks and finished with eight shots, although their best chance to tie the game did not actually result in a shot. Senior Katie Schmidt ran onto a ball that squirted through the defense and into the 18-yard box, but before she could get to it for a shot, Visco slid in with a tackle to clear the ball out of bounds for a corner kick in the 74th minute.
“I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy match-up for us because you are talking about a bunch of senior girls who are looking to play physical against our team, which is primarily underclassmen,” Phillips said. “I think how they responded to that challenge really speaks to the character of the girls.”
Colts Neck nearly put the game away with a third goal in the 60th minute, starting with another dangerous shot by King. The junior forward one-timed a bouncing ball off the left post from 18 yards out and it bounced to a charging Halley Cartas. The senior followed the miss with a left-footed touch toward the goal, but Korber reacted with a diving stop to her left.
King, Visco and Tagliaferri all left the game at different points with injuries, although each returned at a later point in the game. Tagliaferri and Visco both finished the game on the bench, with Visco injuring herself on the tackle to save the goal in the 74th and Tagliaferri aggravating a calf injury with a shot early in the second half.
“We are kind of a small team, so for us to try to play while they are running through us to get to the ball is tough for us,” Russo said. “We have a strong defense in the back, so we just tried to win the ball there, get the ball up to the forwards and let them do their thing.”
If the Cougars are to win their first Shore Conference Tournament championship by winning a rubber match against Wall, they will have to do it without Tagliaferri, barring a weather postponement. Tagliaferri, who has already made a verbal commitment to Penn State and leads the team with 24 goals, will be away at a college camp over the weekend and will miss the game.
“I think it changes what our opponent will do more than what we do,” Phillips said of missing Tagliaferri. “Normally, they would have to account for her up top with either an extra defender or man-mark, but they can probably play more straight-up now. But on our end, not much is going to change.”
Cartas, a captain and one of only two seniors on the Colts Neck roster, will start in her place after coming off the bench on Wednesday. A bout with concussions has kept Cartas out of action this season, according to Phillips, and the senior has slowly worked back into regular playing time. Cartas was a starter as a freshman on the last Colts Neck team to reach the SCT semifinals and was one its most productive players as a sophomore in 2012.
“We’re fortunate to have Halley just coming back, so the timing of her getting back to form is good for us,” Phillips said. “She’s had a long road back and it’s taken her a while to get her fitness, but she gave us quality minutes today and it’s only going to get better. We’ll throw her back in the starting lineup on Saturday and hopefully, we won’t miss a beat.”
Wall is the lone team to beat Colts Neck this season, a 3-2 overtime win back on Oct. 1. Colts Neck won the first meeting, 5-1, on Sept. 11.
“We thought the first game was going to be a close game and we beat them 5-1,” Russo said. “In the second game, we just couldn’t finish and they beat us in overtime. That was our only loss of the season so far and now we want our revenge.”
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