ROYERSFORD — After 80 minutes of regulation play and a pair of 15-minute overtime periods, Spring-Ford and Marple Newtown were still tied at 0-0 in Thursday night’s District 1-4A second-round contest at Coach McNelly Stadium
And even the usual five rounds of penalty kicks did not decide the outcome. But finally, Rams sophomore Lily Hassan gave her team the lead in the seventh round and senior goalkeeper Olivia Neild came up with her third straight save for a 5-4 shootout win.
That sends No. 5 seed Spring-Ford (18-3) into a Saturday quarterfinal at 10 a.m. at No. 4 seed Garnet Valley, a 2-0 winner over Central Bucks South. The winner of that match will advance to the PIAA Class 4A Tournament. The loss ended the season for the No. 21 seed Tigers (10-9-2).
The Rams had lost to Owen J. Roberts on penalty kicks in the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship match both this season and last year and fell behind 4-3 when the Tigers’ Lilly Cook scored to complete the fourth round.
“We’d gone to PK’s twice before and lost,” said Neild. “I was scared, but I just had to go for it. I just had to trust my gut and go with what I thought was best. For the seniors, something much bigger was on the line.”
Erin Buckley led off the fifth round with a goal for Spring-Ford to tie the score and Neild made a save to send the shootout into extra kicks.
Then both Marple Newtown keeper Nicole Semerjian and Neild came up with stops to keep the score tied before Hassan booted in what proved to be the game-winner and Neild wrapped up the win with a save.
“I was nervous, but I was confident in myself,” said Hassan, who had not participated in a shootout previously and would not have on Thursday if not for the extra rounds “I just had to go wherever my heart tells me to go by the keeper’s body position.”
“It’s been a bit of a nemesis for us,” Spring-Ford coach Jeff Kushner said concerning the penalty kick scenarios. “We got the monkey off our back.”
And that might have been thanks to a lot of practice on penalty kicks.
“Repetition, repetition, repetition for two-and-a-half to three weeks,” Kushner added. “We decided to do that to take some of the anxiety out of it. I’m really proud of her (Neild). She worked out some energy. She was phenomenal.”
Scoring opportunities were few and far between in the first half and much of the second and the overtimes. The Rams had perhaps their best chance in regulation play midway through the second half when Ava Hissong got free on the right wing and unleashed a blast right at Semerjian.
Marple Newtown didn’t produce its first shot on goal until eight minutes remained in the second overtime. Then the Rams came close to winning it twice on a corner kick that was knocked around in front of the goal several times before being cleared and on a breakaway and shot by Hissong that was stopped by the Tiger keeper.
Semerjian had nine saves and Neild made one. Spring-Ford had a 9-3 advantage in corner kicks.
“We just stayed calm and played as a team,” said Neild. “We had a few opportunities tonight. We just had to stay together and put everything on the line.”
“We all came together,” said Hassan. “We just did it for each other.”
Kushner gave credit to the game plan put together by Marple Newtown and its coach.
“Craig (Scangarella) is a very good coach,” he said. “He came out with a definite game plan to defend with nine or 10 behind the ball. They’re a very well-coached team, difficult to unlock. The Rams have now posted six straight shutouts.
“Defensively, we’ve been very disciplined,” said Kushner. “Winning 50-50 balls has been huge for us.”
Last year, the Rams made it to the quarterfinals, but lost there and in a playback game to fall just short of finishing in the top five and earning a PIAA Tournament appearance.
“Same spot as last year,” said Kushner. “It’s a huge accomplishment for the program. Making states is a good program goal.”
