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| Ramapo's replacements step up in county quarterfinals | |||||||||||
Halejian’s goal off a drop pass from Allie Maresca with 10:38 remaining in the second half was the difference in Ramapo’s 2-1 win over fifth-seeded Pascack Valley, the defending county champion. “Allie had the ball in the box and I saw her lay it back to me. I just took a touch and saw the keeper leaning toward the near post so I just tried to slot it toward the near post,” said Halejian, who has more than held her own on the varsity level in soccer, supposedly her second best sport behind basketball. ”Everyone has an equal role, we all contribute and we play like a team. That is how we won today.” But it did not necessarily look like the Green Raiders were a shoe-in for the semifinals as Pascack Valley closed the first half strong. The Indians had a five-minute late in the first half in which they won two corner kicks, put two shots on goal and had another, a rip by sophomore Lindsey Hickey, carried just over the bar. And just 3:10 into the second half, Melissa McKeary locked a defender on her back, turned to her left to create space and there was nothing wrong with the path she chose. McKeary hit a screamer back to the post right post that was right on target.
That was when Shiel made as nice a save as is possible in high school girls soccer. She laid out left and pulled the ball down in mid air to preserve the scoreless tie, at least for the next eight minutes. “The girl [McKeary] got a good pass from the outside and hit a good shot,” said Shiel. “I just dove in the air and got it.” But PV did manage the game’s first goal and it came in the 54th minute on a physical play. Shiel, Ramapo sophomore Avery Jackson and PV’s Hickey all converged near the top of the penalty area in pursuit of a ball played in from the right side. There was a collision, and there was also Hickey’s right foot, which hit the ball first and knocked it into the open net and the Indians went up 1-0. “The only time you panic when you go down 1-0 is you watch the next four or five minutes and you see how your team responds,” said Ramapo head coach Paul Heenehan. “I looked at my kids as we started to play and I said, ‘OK, we are all right.”
In fact Heenehan needed even less than four minutes to see the result of his team added intensity. Just two minutes after falling behind, Jackson played the ball up to Amy Van Dyk and she hit the ball on the diagonal toward JoJo Pisani, who was a step or two inside the penalty area. Pisani kept the ball moving on its course, but added a lot more pace to it, one-touching the ball inside the far post to tie the game. Ramapo had the next
two chances, the first was an Anna Drehwing shot that flew the
crossbar and the second was Halejian’s game-winner that
sends the fourth-seeded Green Raiders into the Bergen County semifinals
where they will play the top seed and also unbeaten IHA. FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com. |
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