Friday,
November 15, 2013
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Molly Barrow (right) Ramsey's junior goalkeeper, made a save in the penalty kick shootout and her sister, freshman Maddie Barrow, made her attempt from the spot to give the Rams the North 1, Group 2 state sectional title with a 0-0 (4-2 PKs) win at Pascack Hills. |
MONTVALE – It is natural for a goalkeeper to be nervous in a penalty kick shootout, especially in a game with the implications of Thursday's North 1, Group 2 state sectional final. But for Ramsey junior keeper Molly Barrow, it was not when she was standing on the goal line in front of a shooter that was the gut-wrenching part. Nope, it was when her younger sister, freshman Maddie Barrow, stood at the spot in the final round of the shootout with a chance to finally finish the game which started in brilliant sunshine and was now being played under a blackened sky.
“When my little sister was about to take that shot, I was terrified,” said Molly Barrow. “ All I could think about is how she would feel if she missed it and I did not want that to happen to her.”
Maddie Barrow was not even supposed to be in the penalty kick lineup, but a second half injury meant that she was put in the rotation and somehow she would up as the fifth shooter. After her sister made a diving save in the second round and Pascack Hills saw its fourth-round shot clang off the post, Maddie Barrow stepped up to take her turn.
“I was so nervous because we practice this so much and I did not want to blow it. I wasn't supposed to even take one, but one of the girls got hurt and I filled in. I am a freshman and I wasn't really expecting this,” said Maddie. “There was only two ways it was going to go. Either I was going to blow it or I was going to win it for my team.”
It was option No. 2 as Maddie Barrow, a natural left-footed player, went across her body and buried the ball inside the right corner to give Ramsey a 4-2 win in the shootout after 100 minutes of scoreless but entertaining soccer. The victory gave the Rams their second sectional title in the last three years and a spot in Tuesday's Group 2 state semifinal against North 2 champion Bernards, a 3-2 winner over Parsippany.
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The battle between Ramsey's Kelly Redl (left) and her vigilant defender Amanda Tosi was a game with the game that also ended in a stalement. |
Before the season started; check that, before the state tournament started a couple of weeks ago, Maddie Barrow did not even know what was a stake. After her penalty kick went in, she had a much better idea.
“I had not idea what the state tournament was really about. A couple of weeks ago we had a pasta party before our first state game and the older girls literally explained everything about how big this game would be and how important it was to them,” said Maddie Barrow. “I didn't realize how crazy this would be, but I know now.”
The shootout was the only way to decide which team would move on as neither team could dent the net through regulation and the two overtimes. Sometimes a 0-0 tie can be monotonous as the ball moves from 18 to 18 to the rhythm of a metronome as neither team is willing to take chances that might leave it exposed in the back. This was not one of those games as both teams went after each other from the get-go. Only the brilliant play of both keepers kept it from being a different kind of shootout, one where goals were flying in left and right.
Pascack Hills started strongest and could have gone in front with any number of the early chances it created. Seven minutes in, Pascack Hills' Brianna Musco, the senior striker with more than 100 goals behind her in a four-year varsity career, ran through a header and chased the ball into the corner before hitting a floating cross into the box. Devon Willock got under the serve and was able to use its pace to head the ball toward the second post. It was going to go in before Molly Barrow made a full dive to push it around the post.
While Ramsey had its fair share of the play in the first half, it was Pascack Hills that had the three most dangerous chances, the last two also involved Musco, who was flying around the offensive third. In the 29th minute, Musco pressured a defender into making a mistake in the corner, won possession and then dropped the ball back for Leigh Siracusano, who put her first touch into a dangerous spot on the opposite side of the field.
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Pascack Hills keeper Amy Annese was brilliant throughout, especially under heavy pressure in the second half and both overtimes. |
Molly Villafranco rushed in from the right flank and volleyed the ball with the inside of her right foot as Molly Barrow barreled off her line. It looked like a sure goal, but Barrow got off the ground and saved the shot with her head and her defense ran in behind to clear the ball out. Four minutes later, Musco jumped on a shanked clearance with a clear path to goal. Again Maddie Barrow came up huge, faking a dash off her line, retreating and then getting both gloves on the shot that was clearly heading for the back of the net.
It was a great escape act and in the second half, Ramsey took its turn to pepper the Pascack Hills net helped by it domination of the midfield after the break.
“We were a little more aggressive to the ball. We talked about how in the two games we played them before this season (a loss and a tie) how they were anticipating and we were reacting. We had to change that and we did a much better job of it in the second half,” said Ramsey head coach George Wright. “We started with Kelly [Redl] in the back at sweeper, we moved her up top and that gave some more dimensions to the team. With her up top it opened the field more.”
Redl almost put the Rams in front six minutes into the second half when she was sent on a nice little outside-of-the-foot touch by Victoria Pesco. Redl was in front of the pack and put a shot on goal, but Pascack Hills keeper Amy Annese responded with her first stellar save. She got just enough of her gloves on the ball to push it onto and then over the crossbar.
Pascack Hills was forced to play defense for long stretches of the second half but was still dangerous on the counterattack. Its last good scoring chance of regulation came with 11 minutes to go when Erica Bardes dropped the ball back for Musco, who hit a left-footed bender from the top of the box, but again Molly Barrow was up to it as she laid out to push the ball wide.
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Senior Brianna Musco generated most of Pascack Hills' most dangerous chances. |
The final 40 minutes were free flowing as each team earned just one corner kick apiece. The ball was moving on the ground and was kept in play, but nothing was settled and the first overtime passed without a nervous moment either way. The second overtime, however, was a different story as Ramsey really took over.
Annese made a diving stop of a Gabrielle Martone shot just 38 seconds into the second extra session and Anna Jensen made a twisting run through three defenders before firing her shot off the football crossbar behind the net five minutes in. It was with 3:30 remaining when it became clear that penalty kicks would be the only answer as Ramsey had the Pascack Hills defense off balance in the box on a sustained possession inside the box that led to an open look for Kristen Webb, who hit a left-footed shot toward what looked an open side of the net inside the left post.
True to form, Annese made a ridiculous save, fighting off the momentum of moving to her left and somehow getting back in time to make a hockey-style kick save. Pascack Hills also survived another Webb attempt that went off the crossbar with just over two minutes to go.
That forced the PKs and Martone and Pascack Hills' MaryKate O'Neill exchanged first round makes. The second round is were the teams' fortunes diverged as Ramsey's Kailey O'Keefe's shot kissed the underside of the crossbar before going in and Maddie Barrow guessed right (correctly, that is) with a dive to her left to stone the Cowgirls' second shooter. Ramsey missed its third attempt high and Kayla Strick made hers to retie the shootout, but Skyler Rybacki gave Ramsey the lead back before Pascack Hills' next attempt met the framework flush. That left Maddie Barrow with the game on her foot and she knocked it in to end the marathon.
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Ramsey celebrated after winning its second state sectional title in the last three years. |
The loss ended Pascack Hills' brilliant season with a record of 19-2-2 and it included a league title against stellar competition that included Ramsey and River Dell, which played in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final on Thursday.
“I told my kids, and I am always honest with them, that I thought the better team won today. I am not saying Ramsey is a better team overall, but today they played better than we did. They brought it to us in the second half and in the overtimes we were just trying to hang on,” said Pascack Hills head coach Scott Ernest. “The pain from this loss will subside and all the good things that our girls did during the season will start to come back. I told them that all of those texts and those emails that they sent to each other to pump each other up, now they have to do the same thing to pick each other up and come back together as a team so they can enjoy the success they had. That was my parting message to them.”
No parting messages are necessary for Ramsey (17-3-2) just yet as they are now just two wins away from an outright Group 2 state title. When the Rams won a section title in 2011, they went on to finish the job down at the The College of New Jersey.
“We had a little rough patch in the middle of the season, but we have picked it up a lot,” said Molly Barrow. “At the start of the season I thought something like this might be possible, but now it is real, it's reality and we only need two more wins.”
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