Monday,
October 17, 2011
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Madison Hollerman scored 50 seconds into overtime for Northern Highlands, which avoided what would have been one of the biggest upsets in Bergen County Tourney history with a 2-1 win over Mahwah. |
OAKLAND – When Courtney Levine asked the referee for a time check late in regulation, her team was on cusp on the biggest upsets in the history of the Bergen County Tournament. Mahwah was matched against top-seed and undefeated Northern Highlands and was up a goal when the referee answered, “Less than one [minute].” But “less than one minute” can be an eternity in a girls soccer game and by the time the time the final whistle blew, Mahwah was not celebrating an upset win, but instead had to settle for being a participant in one of the tournament's greatest comebacks and one of its most star-crossed games.
Clare Shea scored on one of the myriad of long-throws played in by Jackie Reyneke inside the final 30 seconds of regulation to tie the game and Madison Holleran directed a shot through the traffic in front of the net 50 seconds into overtimes as Northern Highlands broke the Thunderbirds' hearts with a twist-a-plot style 2-1 win on Sunday at Indian Hills High School.
“That was brutal. I am never speechless, but I am speechless,” said Levine, whose is the defending Group 2 state champion. “As crushed as I am, I am so proud of what my team did and how they carried themselves. To know that [Northern Highlands] was averaging six goals a game, to know what they are capable of and for us to take them to overtime is pretty remarkable considering everything that went on out there today.”
And what went on was a wild 80 minutes of regulation in which Mahwah found itself playing defense for most of the time. Despite the fact that it wound up trailing when Mahwah converted one of its few chances of the game into a goal in the 70th minute, Northern Highlands was winning in just about every other quantifiable category. Corner kicks won, shots taken on goal, other scoring chances and just being dangerous non-stop right from the opening whistle.
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Mahwah keeper Allison Burns was brilliant in net before being injured on this collision 13 minutes into the second half. |
In the first 10 minutes alone and with the wind at its back, Northern Highlands put together a least six quality scoring chances. In the early going, Emma Sullivan hit the crossbar with a header and Hana Kerner had a shot saved on a bang-bang play, Shea almost snuck a shot through the wickets, Holleran was robbed by a diving stop by Mahwah keeper Alison Burns, the junior who was under duress just about from the get-go. In addition, the long throw-ins by Reyneke that are so effective and what Mahwah worked all week to avoid were coming in bunches.
But the Reyneke throw, which has been an unstoppable weapon, might have met its match in Burns, the Mahwah junior who jumped out with fists flying on numerous occasions. When she was able to get to the ball she punched, slapped or otherwise deflected off line. When she wasn't able to make contact with the ball, she made contact with the Highlanders, who had to worry as much about self preservation against two fisted goalie gloves as scoring goals.
“It is really frustration because usually score off of headers all the time, but this goalie got to everything,” said Holleran. “We couldn't use Jackie's throw-in as threat anymore because [Burns] got to everything.”
As Highlands' onslaught continued through the first half and well into the second, it seemed that the game would remain scoreless for as long as Burns could hold up. But she never got a chance to finish what she started as she was knocked out of the game in a scary incident 13 minutes into the second half.
Northern Highlands freshman Carly Leipzig found enough space in the middle of the field to get off a rip that Burns went low to save. The ball was hit with such pace that the rebound came back toward the field of play and the race was on. Burns scrambled forward and Highlands' Madeline Heaney headed full speed from the opposite direction and when the ball and the two players all arrived in the same place at the same time, Heaney's right knee slammed full force into Burns' cheekbone, causing a deep gash on the left side of her face.
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Clare Shea's goal in the final minute of regulation get Northern Highlands even at 1. |
No penalty was called on the play and rightfully so as the collision was the result of hustle for a loose ball, not malicious intent, but the injury was serious enough to require Burns to be removed from the field on a stretcher and taken to a hospital by ambulance.
When the game resumed nearly 25 minutes after it was stopped, Mahwah not only had to cope with after effects of seeing a teammate wheeled off the pitch, but also with the loss of its starting keeper, who was brilliant in net. In stepped Emily Santos, who spent the first 53 minutes of the game chasing wayward balls out of bounds on the opposite side of the field from her team's bench. Santos, a sophomore, went from ballgirl to between the pipes during a scoreless county tournament game in a matter of minutes. And she played great.
Santos picked right up for Burns, throwing herself into traffic and keeping Highlands from finishing the numerous chances it continued to generate. In the 59th minute, Santos closed down the left post on a shot by Kerner and four minutes later she got up to push a Heaney chip up toward and then onto the crossbar. The ball took two hops on top of the framework before falling back into play before Santos punched it out of trouble again.
Even though it decidedly lost in time of possession and had been held to just two shots on goal through the first 10 minutes of the game, Mahwah was still just one break away from taking a lead and that break came in the form of a free kick from 40 yards out. Katie Gatta struck the restart, Campbell tracked its path toward the right post and then knocked it in. All of a sudden, Northern Highlands was trailing in a game for the first time all season there was just 10:27 left showing on the scoreboard clock.
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Campbell Duffy scored in the 70th minute to give Mahwah a 1-0 lead. |
“We played for Ali [Burns] after she got hurt, I scored for Ali and we were thinking about her the whole time,” said Duffy, a senior who celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday. “The goal happened right after everything that went on with Ali and I just thought to myself, 'This has to be me. This is our chance.' As soon as Katie kicked it, I took off. I got a head on it, it went in and that was just the best feeling.”
The feeling would last until the final minute when Highlands' pressure finally paid off. After Levine asked for that time check, Highlands was awarded a free kick from deep in its own end that was played up along the right sideline where it was played out. Although Mahwah thought otherwise, Highlands was awarded the thrown-in that Reyneke put right on the 6. The ball bounced straight down out of the scrum and Shea was there to nudge it home with the outside of her right shin.
“We wanted to do anything to put a goal in. We are out [of the tournament] if we don't put a ball in, so we really needed to get to goal. We just had to get a body part on it to get it in,” said Shea, a sophomore midfielder, who returned to the field after cramping up just in time to join to game-tying rush. “I told myself that I needed to put the ball in with whatever it took and I just touched it and it went in.”
Then the longest “less than one minute” continued long enough for Highlands to gain possession after Mahwah's restart from the center circle, move the ball back into its offensive third and get off one last shot, a quality try by Holleran that Santos sprawled to save at the left post.
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Jackie Reyneke finally got one of her long throws to turn into a goal late in the second half. |
When overtime started, Highlands had all the momentum and won a corner kick that Sullivan played in from the right side. The ball ping-ponged around the area before Holleran could find it and she bent a shot around two defenders and into the net for the Golden Goal 50 seconds into the extra session.
“It's like all a blur. We were just trying as hard as we could because we can let this title get away from us. We know we can make it to the finals and win, but we just had to find a way to make it through this game,” said Holleran. “That [goal] was just like an in-the-zone kind of thing. I am not really sure what happened, but the whole thing is surreal.”
Indeed it was and Highlands, which had not scored less than four goals in any game this season coming in, survived to reach the semifinals where it will face fourth-seeded Glen Rock, a 1-0 overtime winner against fifth-seeded Ramsey in the final match of Sunday's quadruple header.
“I think Mahwah played us very well. Defensively they did what they could do, their keeper played phenomenal and even their backup keeper came in and kept them in the game. I think we had our opportunities, but it was still 0-0 for a long time,” said Highlands head coach Tara Madigan. “This was the first time all season that we had been down a goal and I think that we really showed the true character of this team to constantly push forward a not give up regardless of how much time was left in the game and that proved to be important.”
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