Following impressive victories over Burlington Township and Delran earlier this week, the Pirates girl’s soccer team came into Saturday’s game with Holy Cross looking for a third straight victory.
“We knew that they were a very good team so we didn’t want to adjust or make any major plans,” head coach Matt Digney said. “We didn’t man mark them. We just kind of figured we would go with our momentum. Make them adjust to us. No different than any other game.”
Cinnaminson took care of business, grabbing a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Lancers to move to 4-1 on the season.
The majority of the first half was scoreless until the Pirates were awarded a PK for the first time in a couple of years. Hailey Gutowski took advantage, beating the Lancers keeper for a 1-0 Pirate lead at 6:02.
“The penalty kick was nice,” Digney said. “We hadn’t gotten one of those in a little over two years. It’s about time we get a little lucky. It was a legit call, I think.”
The score would remain 1-0 at halftime and for more than half of the second stanza until Alex Keck buried a rebound in front of the Lancers goal to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead at 12:49.
“I think it got us more hype,” Keck said of the 2-0 lead. “I think we worked harder. I think it just motivated us.”
Holy Cross came into the game at 5-0, and their play after going down 2-0 showed why they were undefeated up until today. The Lancers worked hard to score their first goal at 10:06 and then tie the game at two with 5:01 to play.
Less than two minutes later, Keck broke through the Lancers defense and deposited her second goal of the game to give the Pirates a 3-2 win.
“It made me work harder after they got that goal to tie it up,” Keck said about her game winner. “I wanted that ball. I did not want to go to overtime and my team worked really hard and I’m really proud of them.”
The final two goals of the game for the Pirates came with a man down.
“A man down, which I hated that call, but that’s how it goes,” Digney said. “Holy Cross put some pressure on us and these girls picked their moments to attack and we were able to get two with a man down. Two goals with a man down, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.”
These two teams meet again on Tuesday, September 29 at 3:45pm at Holy Cross for the second game of a home-and-home with the Lancers.
