JF girls defeat Staunton River in a shootout

By Ted Allen

Published: May 23, 2008

FOREST — One hundred minutes of soccer wasn’t enough to decide Friday night’s Seminole District girls championship game between host Jefferson Forest and Staunton River.
The two teams played to a 1-1 draw in regulation and waged four scoreless five-minute overtime periods before it took a five-on-five shootout to determine the tournament champion.
Golden Eagles’ fifth shooter Brittany Adams tied it at 3 by slipping her shot off the hands of Cavaliers’ diving goalkeeper Whitney Bonheim into the left side of the net.
It all came down to senior Brittany Gallagher, the area’s leading scorer with 23 goals and nine assists.
“It’s a pressure cooker out there, as you can imagine,” Forest coach Stan Golon said. “All that pressure’s on you, the whole stands are watching and you’ve got to bury it, so it’s not an easy thing.”
Gallagher delivered the game-winner, off the outstretched fingertips of Staunton River keeper Moira Guzi inside the left post.
“We had to be confident and we made them when it counted,” Gallager said.
The 2-1 triumph (4-3 in penalty kicks) enabled the Cavaliers (15-2-1) to defend their regular-season and tournament titles, going undefeated (14-0) in district play for the first time since 2001. It was the fifth time in that eight-year span JF has claimed both the regular season and tournament crowns.
“It was a really tough game,” Gallagher said. “They’re probably the toughest team we’ve played this year. We played really well, they just brought their A game, too, so we had to fight for it.”
Gallagher had headed in the game’s first goal off a cross from fellow forward Taylor Duff eight and a half minutes into the first half.
“That was a world-class header,” Golon said. “It doesn’t get any better than that. It was an excellent ball, right where it needed to be. She just went up and got it. That was a fantastic goal.”
Staunton River got the equalizer just two and a half minutes into the second half when Ashley Cassidy lofted a shot from inside the right side of the box over back-up goalie Dorothy Nugent just inside the near post.
“They played with a lot of heart tonight and showed that they’re a region caliber team,” Golon said. “They’ve done a great job out there. Their keeper was phenomenal … and she’s only a freshman, so that’s scary. They can really build on that.”
“We got really close, but couldn’t quite pull it off,” Guzi added. “We all played our hearts out. We took it to the end. They’re a great team, but so are we.”
After Chelsea Hayes received a cross-field pass from Cameron DeWitt and rocketed a shot from in the right of the box saved by Guzi late in the second half, Duff had two scoring chances in the third and fourth overtimes. She took a cross from Gallagher and shot it just wide of the upper right post in the third before heading a corner kick just wide of the near post in the fourth.
“We got a lot of good scoring opportunities, we just couldn’t get them in,” DeWitt said.
Forest swept Staunton River in the three meetings this season, but this was the most competitive by far.
“That’s as close as you can get, losing by one in a shootout,” Golden Eagles coach Kenneth Young said. “You hate to lose, but as I told Stan (Golon) afterwards, we could see them again next Friday (in the Region III final), if we win three games and they win two.”
Staunton River (14-5) will host Stuarts Draft in Monday’s Region III first round at Liberty, due to its field being under renovation. The Cavaliers await the winner of Monday’s other opener between Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, which it will host Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the first game of another girls-boys doubleheader at JF.
Forest’s boys faced Amherst in Friday’s second Seminole District final, which didn’t start until after 9 p.m.