September
25, 2005
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| Kelly Berkanish had the game-winner as River Dell faced its first test of the season and came out with a 2-1 win over Westwood. | |
ORADELL – River Dell surprised nearly everyone last year by making the Bergen County semifinals and giving Ramapo everything they could handle before suffering a one-goal defeat. But the Lady Hawks only showed the rest of the county what the rest of the BCSL-American has known for years, the Hawks are quite a tough team to beat.
River Dell, the defending league champ, has gone untested so far this season until yesterday. Westwood, the RD’s biggest threat to another league title, did two things that no other team has done this season to the Hawks. One was putting them on their heels, the other was handing them an early deficit. But that only seemed to fire them up, a deficit nor a sluggish start was going to stop the Hawks from soaring to another victory.
Courtney Snyder’s aggressive play led to the tying goal and she then fed Kelly Berkanish for the game-winner as the Hawks survived a scare and dominated the second half for a 2-1 victory.
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| Westwood celebrating the goal that gave it a 1-0 lead in the first half. |
“We needed a challenge like this and we stepped up,” said Berkanish. “They outplayed us for about the first 20 minutes and we realized that we were up against a pretty good team. I think the big thing was that we never gave up and we started winning the balls in the midfield. Westwood came out with nothing to lose, just like we did against Ramapo last year in the counties. We just had to keep playing our game and stay composed.”
Westwood came out and took control of play early with Katie Mosolino and Olivia Stinson doing a solid job in the midfield. They created several scoring opportunities, before finally getting on the board near the midway point of the first half.
A Stinson cross got knocked around in the box with no less than four players from each team trying to get to it. It finally got loose and Shannon Joseph was there to knock it home to give the Cards a 1-0 lead.
“That goal really woke us up and we knew we had to raise our game a level,” said Snyder. “We haven’t really played that level of competition yet this year and they proved that they were a tough team. After that goal though, we got more aggressive. We knew that if we put enough pressure on them, we would find a way to score a few goals.”
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| Courtney Snyder made the run that led to the penalty kick thar got River Dell even. |
Just over six minutes later, Snyder made a long run and beat a defender into the box where she was taken down and awarded a penalty kick. Alana Presslaff stepped up and drilled it past Westwood keeper Alex Almeida to tie the score at 1 heading into the second half.
The advantage swung back and forth throughout the first half, but it was all River Dell in the second half. Julie Trapini and Trish Berkanish really shut down the Cardinals’ attacking midfielders; while Snyder was making plays all over the field and finding open teammates.
In the 49th minute, Kelly Berkanish started the game-winning rush by earning possession in the midfield. She then fed Snyder, who beat a defender and worked the give-and-go with Berkanish. After receiving the ball, Berkanish took one dribble then lofted a 25-yard shot just over the outstretched hands of Almeida and under the crossbar to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead.
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| Westwood's Katie Mosolino was a tough matchup in the midfield for the River Dell defense. |
From there, the Hawks continued to dominate play and keep the pressure on, but Almeida was outstanding and kept her team in the match. River Dell held a 7-0 bulge in corner kicks in the second half, but could not find the net on any of them. Almeida made four diving saves in the second half alone, including two on Presslaff and one on Nicole Kufel.
Westwood’s best chance to send the game into overtime came with nine minutes remaining when they got two cracks at the goal off of a direct kick from Stinson. With the ball near the corner flag, she served a nice ball into the middle of the box. Nikki Verost and Danielle Kisza both had shots at the net, but Trapini and Ann Behrens, respectively, knocked them down and the ball was cleared out.
“Even though we lost, I’m very, very pleased with the way we played,” said Westwood head coach Bill Morrow. “It was a very skilled, very physical game, and a great game to watch. We held them at bay for most of the first half and Almeida was fantastic all game long, probably the best game I’ve ever seen her play. I think we showed that we can play at a high level and we will build from this experience.”
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| Alana Preslaff got River Dell even in the first half by burying this PK. |
River Dell held a 17-8 advantage in shots and moved to 6-0 on the season with the victory. Tovah Goldstein recorded five saves in the victory. Westwood falls to 5-2, despite a nine-save performance from Almeida.
The Hawks will face two more tests in the next week with Tenafly coming to town before traveling face state powerhouse Ridge next weekend.
“We knew Westwood was a good team and they played great in the first half,” said River Dell head coach Steve Grenz. “Defensively, we keyed on Mosolino and Trish Berkanish did a great job of making her receive the ball with her back to the goal. I thought we played more under control in the first half and started to string more passes together in the second half. Everyone in our league knows that we are a very good team and now we want to make our mark in the counties and among the best in the state. This week will be a good measuring stick for us to see where we are.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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