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Freeport ends Rosary’s run
Updated: May 24, 2011 11:13PM
All game long the Freeport girls soccer team tried to play long balls through the Rosary defense to speedy forward Darice Brooks during Tuesday afternoon’s semifinal of the Burlington Central Class 2A Sectional.
And all game long Brooks was called offsides as Royals’ defenders Courtney Bila and Brittany Hutchinson pushed up the field.
Then with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation in a scoreless game, Brooks got free onsides and Hutchinson hurried to catch up.
Brooks stumbled trying to get off a shot and her and Hutchinson steamed right past the ball, but teammate Julia Luecke followed up and hopped a shot past Rosary goalie Lauren Frasca into the right side of goal for the game’s only score.
“Definitely not by design,” Freeport coach Nick Namio said. “I tell the girls that when we mess up and something good happens we say ‘As planned.’ That came right to Julia’s foot. And it was really our only good goal-scoring opportunity of the second half; took advantage of it.”
The Pretzels (15-5-2) played with a strong wind at their back in the first half, leading to six corner kicks and several runs, but Rosary (11-11-3) managed to keep a bend-but-don’t-break mentality.
Then in the second half, the Royals gained the wind’s favor and began peppering the goal with little shots, while picking up several different set pieces. They just couldn’t break through.
“I think we played one of the best games of the season,” Rosary coach Kevin Callaghan said. “We outplayed them, literally outplayed them today. It was just an unfortunate thing at the end, but we had three chances in the game where we should have scored and we just couldn’t finish it. When you get those chances against a team like that you have to close the door on them.”
Royals midfielder Sam Duarte’s shot from 20 yards prior to Luecke’s goal sailed just over goal, and then with just a few minutes remaining Kaitlin Johnson was fed a ball in the box on which she scored but was just slightly offsides.
“We weathered the storm from Rosary,” Namio said. “They really hammered us that whole (second) half, but we were able to keep it out of our net.”
Said Callaghan: “I think we got them scared and they have a lot to think about the next game.”
Outside of a deer that ran on the field and stopped play for a minute at the 4:41 mark of the second half, the only other noteworthy material came from Pretzels’ goalie Rebecca Ursin, who had seven saves, helping Freeport move on to the sectional final against Marian Central.
Rosary headed home defeated on the scoreboard, but not in spirit and with a team returning Duarte, Johnson, Frasca, Taylor Gibson and Olivia Cozzoni, among others, there’s reason to think this Royals’ team will have something to say come next postseason.
“It looks promising,” said Callaghan, who may or not return. “We’ll see what happens.”
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