Friday, October 25, 2013
By Eric fortune
HANOVERTON
The last two years, Juliana Vazquez has seen her Cardinal Mooney High girls soccer team blanked in the district final (Canfield in 2011, Poland in 2012).
Winning this year’s Division III district final was anything but certain with United, a team that already had 14 wins, as the opponent.
However, the third time was the charm for Mooney on Thursday as Vazquez’s hat trick contributed to the Cardinals’ 5-1 win.
“Coming into the game, we wanted to keep our momentum going so that could carry us through the rest of the game,” Vazquez said. “That was our mentality and it worked.”
Early on, the Golden Eagles (14-3-2) seemed to have the advantage in playing physical as they pushed the Cardinals (11-6-1) off the ball to keep the game scoreless for the first 11 minutes.
“They’re a very good team,” Cardinal Mooney coach Frank Sikich said. “I knew they would play aggressive and they’d play a physical game.”
Despite their aggressive play, the Eagles struggled getting into their sets and saw constant attacking from the Cardinals.
Elizabeth Philibun’s goal at the 28:55 mark gave the Cardinals the early lead.
“Our ability to possess the ball under pressure is less then theirs,” United coach Raymond O’Flaherty said. “It’s something we constantly work on — ball possession, our movement, and our communication.
“Again, tonight, it was down,” O’Flaherty said. “We’ve been struggling with it. We’re superior to a lot of our opponents, but when we get to this level, it shows. It shows that we have a lot of work to do to go forward.”
The lack of offensive consistency showed throughout the first half with the Cardinals getting 18 shots on goal with just eight from the Eagles.
“We definitely did not play as well as we can, but it is probably due to some of the pressure they had on us,” O’Flaherty said.
After Vazquez’s first goal, United started to have success beating the Mooney pressure. Mackenzie Gatchel’s goal at the 7:49 mark cut the Cardinal advantage in half, 2-1.
“They were definitely a very physical team,” Vazquez said. “They did a good job initially of sticking on us.
“Once, we got our first goal, it built some momentum and then Mackenzie Gatchel put in that little flick into the corner and they seized it back,” Vazquez said. “When it was at that point, 2-1, it became a battle. Our goal was to get a couple more to take it back.”
Vazquez’s goal about 10 minutes into the second half swung momentum back to Mooney.
“We kept our focus and applied the pressure when we needed to,” Sikich said. “We didn’t let them turn. We played very tight defensively.
“I was very pleased with our back line of Mackenzie Metzinger, Bailey Reardon, Damini Santiago, Delay Reardon, and Kellie Walker,” Sikich said. “They played very tight which kept their shots to a limit. I was happy about that.”