Friday, September 26, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Monique Plescia scored twice in the second half as Old Tappan rallied for a 2-1 win over Indian Hills that locked up the Golden Knights' spot in the Bergen County Tournament.

OLD TAPPAN -- Coaches have a tendency to play down the importance of any one game in a season of many of them. But it was hard to deny the importance of Thursday afternoon's NBIL girls soccer matchup between Old Tappan and Indian Hills. Old Tappan needed just one more win to lock up a spot in the Bergen County Tournament, while one more loss would mean that the Braves would be on the outside looking in this season.

In an entertaining matchup that played host to plenty of scoring chances on both sides, Old Tappan leaned on its junior striker Monique Plescia to put in the postseason. With her team trailing by a goal at halftime, Plescia scored twice, once on a penalty kick, after halftime and the Golden Knights found their way into the postseason with a 2-1 win.

“Honestly, we did not play well in the first half. We have a lot of juniors and seniors now and we don’t have any excuses any more,” said Old Tappan head coach Tom Quinn. “We’ve been saying that we are young for a couple of years now and we woke up in the second half. We dodged a couple of bullets to keep it a 1-0 and then we started to play better.”

Georgia Kalivas was a handful all day and her goal in the 23rd minute gave Indian Hills a 1-0 lead.

Old Tappan actually had the first four chances of the game inside the first 10 minutes, but it Indian Hills, and its talented senior striker Georgia Kalivas who actually found the back of the net first. Michele Gogolen drew the defense on a run up the left side before dropping a pass back to Karen Schoepflin, who then rolled a pass to a cutting Kalivas.

Kalivas, one of those players who never looks like she is running full speed yet seems to always end up in front, pushed past a defender and took the time to pick out the opposite corner. She calmly flung one into the side net to give the Braves the 1-0 lead in the 14th minute. And while neither team would score again in the opening half, that did not mean that the next 26 minutes were bereft of offense.

Old Tappan had two dangerous opportunities of a single corner kick in the 28th minute, but both shots at the goal were knocked down by defenders before they could find their way on net. There was a lot of space in the midfield both ways, which left room to run and to counterattack.

“In the beginning it was tough because we have people hurt and on the bench. Defensively we were struggling,” said OT senior captain Sarah Rose. “In the beginning we were too worried about being without our starting stopper [Brittany Thomasi] when all we had to do was realize that we could play just as well, we just had to maneuver better.”

Old Tappan goalkeeper Emily Russell about to make one of her 14 saves.

And even though his team had a lead after 40 minutes, Indian Hills head coach Jim Louden knew his team had missed out on more than few chances to pad its advantage. Inside the first 10 minutes of the second half, Kalivas settled a corner kick on hit one hard with her right foot only to see OT’s Tina Mammano take on for the team.

Two minutes later Kalivas beat a defender and earned a corner kick that she struck herself only to see it just sail over Daniel Marceca, who was making far post run.

“We didn’t put the ball in the net. You saw how many opportunities we had,” said Louden, whose team fell to 2-4 with just one game left on its schedule before the cutoff for the county tournament, which only accepts teams with records of .500 or better. “Corner kicks, breakaways; if you don’t put them in you lose. And then they called the penalty kick, which I did not agree with.”

Old Tappan was awarded the PK at the end of well-coordinated effort. Plescia won the end line in the offense left corner and left the ball for sophomore Megan Li, who sent a spinner toward the opposite post. The ball was wide of the mark, the rotation of the ball kept it in bounds to the right of the goal where Jordan Flavell-Boney was the first two it.

Karen Schoepflin assisted on the Indian Hills goal and helped generate plenty of other chances.

As Flavell-Boney was gained possession, she was challenged hard, but did not fall to the ground. A trip was called in the box and Plescia lined up and deposited the ball in the middle right.

Asked about the call later, Quinn was diplomatic.

“We caught a break with the PK,” said Quinn. “I was calling for the PK and Jim {Louden] thought otherwise I am sure. If it was the other way around he would have been calling for it and I would be definitely opposed.”

It wasn’t an obvious call, more of the borderline variety, but it did get Old Tappan even and seemed to give the Knights more life. Both goalies, Old Tappan’s Emily Russell and IH’s Danielle Brogan were repeatedly tested over the final 25 minutes and both stood their ground.

Off a throw in, Kalivas found the space to turn and fire, but Russell picked the shot out of the upper 90 to maintain the tie and she made another sure save with just over 21 minutes left to play after Kalivas set up Schoepflin for a quality chance from just inside the 18.

Brogan took her turn in the 66th minute when a foul against Plescia a few steps inside the center stripe gave Old Tappan a restart that was sent into a pile at the top of the box. Brogan came out hard and broke up the initial rush and as the ball squirted free, Marceca steered way any further trouble.

Kalivas and Plescia traded dangerous chances in the next two minutes before Old Tappan was able to find the game-winner. Li kept the ball alive along the sideline and hit a pop fly toward the near post. A clearance attempt went awry and the result was a sitter that Plescia finished with 11:11 left on the clock.

Jordan Flavell-Boney was in possession of the ball inside the box when OT's game-tying penalty kick was awarded.

“We had a lot of chances in the game and we just had to keep pushing until we scored,” said Plescia. “On that second goal I was the ball there and tried to run through it. You have to put it all out there, throw you whole body out there if you have to in that situation.”

Indian Hills had a 7-5 advantage in corner kicks and had three more shots on goal. Brogan made 11 saves and Russell stopped 14 shots as Old Tappan moved to 4-2 on the season with games against Hasbrouck Heights and Mahwah, two worthy opponents left before the county cutoff.

“We are in the county tournament so we don’t have to worry about that now,” said Giana Abballe, OT’s junior midfielder. “No matter who we play we can’t play scared, we have to keep moving forward and keep up the good work.”

Worse case scenario, the Knights would be in the county tournament on the number, but they don’t want to limp in, they want to do some damage when they get there.

“We wanted to go far [in the county tournament] last year, but it didn’t happen. We lost to Park Ridge in the first round and that loss really hurt,” said Rachel Weston, senior defender. “Hopefully we learned from that. A lot of girls played in that came and we know that we can do better.”

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