Thursday, November 3, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kylie Hunter about to hit the game-winning goal as Pascack Hills erased a 3-0 halftime deficit to take a 4-3 win over Newton in the opening round of the North 1, Group 2 state sectional tournament.

MONTVALE – A quick list of all the things that went wrong for the Pascack Hills girls soccer team in the first half of Wednesday's North 1, Group 2 state sectional playoff opener:

1) All of the quality scoring chances that the Cowgirls put together, and there were more than a few of them, either went just wide, off a post or were saved by Newton keeper Morgan Euston.

2) Two of the restarts that Pascack Hills allowed were converted into goals by the Braves.

3) Pascack Hills faced a 3-0 deficit after 40 minutes of play and...

4) Senior co-captain Amanda Fava was taken from the field by ambulance during the intermission after suffering a concussion.

It couldn't have been much worse, but Pascack Hills head coach Scott Ernest saw no reason to reenforce the negatives that were plain enough for everyone to see.

Camila Posse had a goal and an assist as Newton took a commanding 3-0 lead at the break.

“The worse thing I could have done was to start screaming at them at halftime and tell them that they were playing horribly. We had to use that time to fix the things we did wrong in the first half and make sure that we did not make the same mistakes,” said Ernest. “I told them that [Newton] scored three goals in the first half and there was no reason that we couldn't score three in the second half.”

Ernest's players got the three they needed plus one with the last coming inside the last two minutes of regulation when Lindsay Marella went up to win a 50/50 ball just outside the box and headed down what turned into the game-winning assist. Marella put the ball right on the foot of Kylie Hunter as she ran up the left side. Hunter took one dribble to improve her angle then beat the keeper into the opposite corner to cap the improbable comeback, a 4-3 Pascack Hills win in Montvale.

“I was just at the right place at the right time and I just kind of kicked it in,” said Hunter, one of Pascack Hills'' four sophomore starters. “All I could think of was just to shoot. There was nothing else to really do and I just had to make sure that I put it on net.”

Nothing had gone right for the Cowgirls in the first half, while it was just the opposite for Newton, the No. 13 seed. After Euston robbed Brianna Musco with a diving save on a 30-yard rip and then stoning Marella from point blank range on the rebound in the 12th minute, the Braves took the lead just over four minutes later when Camila Posse was left wide open in the box and volleyed home a corner kick played in by Alyssa Cronin.

Amanda Tosi scored twice in the first 15 minutes of the second half to get Pascack Hills back in the game.

In the 28th minute that same pair hooked up again in reverse and Cronin rolled a free kick into Posse, slipped through a hole in the Cowgirls' defense and went in alone to make it 2-0. With three minutes left before the break, Carly Zdanek banged home a cross at the far post and Newton (9-8-1) had a commanding 3-0 lead at halftime, which was extended to nearly a half-hour as the ambulance arrived. After seeing his injured player off, Ernest got his positive message across to the rest of his team.

“We gave them two of those first half goals, we gave them away on two restarts, and we were not going to do that in the second half. I told them they had to go out and play a near perfect second half and if they did that, we could win the game,” said Ernest, who uses three freshman (Jacquelynn Bardes, Ryan Murphy and Molly Villafranco) and six sophomores in his rotation. “We have a lot of youth and I think in the first half that youth was very nervous. In the second half, I think our girls just said, “You know what? We are going to go out and play the way we can play.”

Pascack Hills got right to work chopping Newton's lead down to a workable margin as, four minutes into the second half, Amanda Tosi hit a bullet from just inside the area on the right that crossed the goal before hitting home high on the left to get the Cowgirls on the board. Tosi then beat Euston to a low cross cross and scored 11 minutes later to get Pascack Hills back to within 3-2 with still 24:06 left to play.

This header by PH's Lindsay Marella turned into the game-winning assist.

“I knew that we had to get a first goal early just to get some momentum and put some moral back into the team,” said Tosi, a sophomore. “I think it was mostly nerves in the first half and in the second I think we calmed down and played more of our game. I think once we got the first one we really settled down.”

Where the biggest difference was between the halves was on 50/50 balls. While Newton won most of them in the first 40 minutes, Pascack Hills started to take control in that department after halftime. At no time was that more evident than on the Cowgirls' equalizing goal, a sequence that started when sophomore Valerie Samani stepped in hard just on the defensive side of midfield.

Samani won her challenge and sent the ball up on a line with her next touch to Musco at the 18. Musco laid the ball off for Hunter, who tied a defender in a know with a back-heel pullback before putting a shot inside the far post to tie the game at 3 with 9:52 left. Hunter's game winner came from just about the same spot inside the final two minutes and Pascack Hills (17-3) moved into the quarterfinals of a stacked North 1, Group 2 bracket.

The Cowgirls, the No. 4 seed, will host No. 5 Kinnelon, a 2-1 winner over No. 12 Lodi, on Friday at 2:00 p.m. In Montvale. Also in the bracket are heavyweights like defending Group 2 state champion Mahwah, the No. 7 seed, who will match up against No. 2 Ramsey, a Bergen County Tournament quarterfinalist, in the quarterfinal round, and top-seeded Glen Rock, which reached the Bergen County Final 4. Throw in River Dell and Westwood and the bracket is loaded top to bottom.

“Hey, we are just happy that we got to the second round. We were down 3-0 nothing and we came back to beat a very good team. That in itself is an accomplishment and there are no easy games in this tournament,” said Ernest. “We know we have Kinnelon next and they are a great team, too. We are going to watch a little bit of tape on them, and take these games one at a time. We know that Glen Rock is still looming; Ramsey, Mahwah...the list goes on and we are happy that we are still playing.”

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