After having their season opener delayed for a day, the girl’s soccer team finally got to host Northern Burlington on Friday afternoon. The result was a 2-1 overtime victory for the Pirates.
“I thought we had plenty of chances today, but couldn’t convert. We took advantage of our chances in overtime and put away the win,” head coach Matt Digney said.
Cinnaminson opened the scoring with 29:14 left in the first half when Fiona Flynn found the back of the net. The Pirates would carry the 1-0 lead into halftime.
“The field conditions played a little bit into our plans,” Digney said. “We won the coin toss and decided to attack first because the low side of the field was muddy. A lot of our halftime was talking about how to defend in the slim down there. I wanted to see more attacking from our side. I thought we were faster and I thought we needed to take more of an advantage of that.”
Northern Burlington tied the contest with 24:40 left in the second half. From that point on, the Pirates defense clamped down on the Greyhounds, limiting their chances and spending a large chunk of the remaining time in their zone. Digney spoke about the ability of his girls to respond to adversity this afternoon.
“We talk about that. Not only the physical toughness, but the mental toughness. They responded pretty well. A few minutes after they tied it Alex Kane hit the crossbar and Miranda Sackner was six yards in and she hit it six yards high. They responded pretty well.”
The rest of the second half remained scoreless and the two teams prepared for a 10-minute, sudden death overtime session.
With just 4:52 left in the overtime period, Justyne Gutowski fired the game-winner into the back of the net after a defender fell down trying to regain possession of the ball. The goal gave the Pirates their first victory of the season.
“A simple statement, but we won,” Digney said. “I told the girls there were games just like this last year that we would wind up losing. I think we are learning how to win more than just getting lucky and winning. I was pleased to get the result. We got the goal and it was good enough to get out.”
The Pirates do not return to the field until Thursday, September 17 when they host Moorestown at 3:45pm. Their game schedule for tomorrow morning against Gloucester Catholic has been canceled.
[…] Girl’s Soccer Records 2-1 OT Win to Open Season […]