Sunday,
September 25, 2016
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Chloe Witt volleyed in a looping cross with just over four minutes left in regulation to give Pascack Valley a 1-0 win at Tenafly. |
TENAFLY – When it comes to one of those moments in a close game that calls for senior leadership, Pascack Valley’s Chloe Witt is kind of on her own. It’s not like Witt, the Indians’ only senior starter, can fade into the background and hope one of the other members of the Class of 2017 might make a play.
Late in a scoreless game and with legitimate scoring chances not exactly flowing for either team, Witt had a chance to make a decisive touch. On a looping cross sent in by Jennifer LaRocca from the left side, Witt was sandwiched between two defenders when she lunged with her right foot. The ball fell right where she was hoping and Witt got just enough on it to see it come out the other side of the scrum with pace and then nestle just inside the left post.
That goal, Witt’s first of the season, came with just over four minutes left in regulation, it was the only goal either that team could muster, but it was also the only one that Pascack Valley needed to pull off a 1-0 win on Saturday morning on the road in Tenafly.
“I saw the ball get to Jenny, I saw her play it in and it has happened a bunch of times where the ball gets crossed and I miss it. This time I knew I couldn’t miss it and I had to do something to get on the end of it. I somehow reached out with my right foot and got enough on it for it to go in.” said Witt, who is one of just two seniors on the entire roster. “It felt good because our team was working hard all game, the ball just wasn’t bouncing our way or we would be called for offside when it did. It felt really good to finally put one in the back of the net, especially for me because it was my first one of the season.”
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Zoe Thouma set up one of Tenafly's best scoring chances and also saved the Tigers a goal by clearing this ball off the line. |
Both of these teams are playing a loaded schedule and every game seems to be like this. It’s hard to break down the defenses that these teams go up against on a day-in, day-out basis and so it was again on Saturday. There was plenty of action between the 18s, lots of connected passes through the midfield and good ideas to get forward, but things seemed to peter out in the respective offensive thirds.
Pascack Valley’s best chance of the opening half might have been in the 10th minute when LaRocca’s side-footed attempt with a defender trailing finished just wide of the right post. Tenafly produced a moment of danger 16 minutes in when Zoe Touma veered hard to the right before sending in a rolling cross for Dejana Sujak, who swept her first touch just wide to the right.
Pascack Valley has ridden its defense to its solid 4-1-2 start. With a flat back four consisting of outside backs Rachel White and Lauren Hussey and central defenders Kelly Smith and Nicole Franklin and with junior keeper Erin Flanagan holding down the back line, the Indians have allowed just one goal in the last four games. The one that it did let in was against Ridgewood, generally considered to be in the top handful of teams in North Jersey.
Usually one goal is going to be enough for Pascack Valley, even if that is not easy on the nerves of head coach Amy Lombardo.
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Junior keeper Erin Flanagan and the Pascack Valley defense have given up just one goal in the last four games. |
“It was a tough game like it seems they all are, but we battled and we’ll take it. We are very young, but we are kind of battle tested already. You look at our schedule and it is Old Tappan, it is Demarest, we were on the pitch on Thursday against Ridgewood and then a Saturday morning against an improved Tenafly team. It has not been easy,” said Lombardo. “It’s been non-stop and with a young crew it’s been an accelerated learning process. We start three sophomores, seven juniors and one senior and nine of our players had never started a varsity game before this year.”
Pascack Valley could have made it easier on itself by converting one of its hard-won chances earlier in the second half, but Tenafly was up for the challenge. When PV’s Elizabeth Spadafino took on and beat one defender and then ran through another to put herself in 1-v-1 seven minutes after the intermission, Tenafly keeper Maia Katz was quick off her line and took the ball off Spadafino’s foot. Touma broke up another PV opportunity when she bodied a header by Franklin off the line with just under 13 minutes left in regulation.
Tenafly’s best chance of the second half was a half a chance that Flanagan broke up before it could happen. Sofia Levinson split two defenders with a rolling through ball and Maya Mizrahy was onside as she took off after it, but Flanagan raced well out of her area and booted it out of trouble before it could get truly dangerous.
The loss dropped Tenafly to 2-4 on the season, but that record is deceiving. The Tigers have been competitive just about every time out under second year head coach Sean Kelly, who feels like his team is not all that far away from turning the near misses into goals and the close losses into positive results.
“Last year was my first year and it was totally different. We had a much longer tryout process, I didn’t know the girls all that well or the mentality of how they play. This year has been totally different and the girls are working well together,” said Kelly, whose team was playing its third tough game of the week relatively early on a Saturday morning. “I think today was just tough on us, tough on the girls physically. We did some good things. We are connecting from the defense to the midfield to the forwards, it just didn’t show up on the scoreboard for us today.”
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