Colonials bid for a title is thwarted in double OT
Borough falls 2-1
to Ramsey
VERONICA YANKOWSKI Freehold Borough’s Meghan Phillips tries to dribble around Ramsey’s Crystin Murphy during Saturday’s Group II state title game at The College of New Jersey.
EWING TOWNSHIP — The 2001 Freehold Borough High School girls soccer team doesn’t have to worry about comparisons with any other Colonial squad. They etched their way into school history by becoming the first Freehold Borough girls team to play for the state championship.
After the Colonials won the Shore Conference A Central Division title earlier in the season and then went on to capture the Central Jersey Group II championship, comparisons with the famed 1997 squad, that won three championships (division, Shore Conference Tournament and CJ II) were inevitable.
However, when the Colonials beat Moorestown 1-0 in a shoot-out on Nov. 13 in Hightstown, the 2001 team had done the ’97 squad one better and assured itself of its own legacy and its own place in Borough soccer history.
That the Colonials’ state title bid ended agonizingly in a double-overtime loss to Ramsey, 2-1, Saturday at The College of New Jersey, hardly diminished what the Colonials had achieved.
VERONICA YANKOWSKI Freehold Borough’s Jackie Meder tries to elude a pair of Ramsey defenders during Saturday’s game at The College of New Jersey.
"I never expected to be here," said Coach Heshy Moses. "I have to give my girls credit; they played their hearts out. They’ve played with heart all year.
"We’re not as talented as the teams we’ve been playing, but we play better as a team," he added. "All 18 [girls] have to play well for us to win."
Senior back Kerry Hassel, one of the cornerstones to the Colonials’ remarkable defense, said the loss wouldn’t change what the season and being a part of the 2001 team meant.
"It was amazing getting here," she said. "Overwhelming really. I didn’t realize until I got on the field that we were playing in the state championship game.
"I love my team," she added. "We played tough. They got one ball in the net — that’s what it came down to."
Freehold Borough (18-4-3) stunned the favored Ramsey squad (20-3-1 and North Jersey I Group II champions) by scoring with just 5:24 remaining in the first half. Sarah Van Curen was pulled down while running by a Ram defender drawing a penalty. It set up a restart kick from 20 yards out.
Restart kicks have jump-started the Colonial offense all year, especially in their state playoff run, and again, it was the reliable Brienne Campbell, who set it up. Campbell smacked a low rocket to the right of a diving Ramsey goalie, Ariel Davis. She made the diving save but couldn’t hold on to the blast, giving up the rebound. Meghan Phillips, following up the shot from the wing, was right on the doorstep to slam the rebound home and give Freehold the 1-0 lead.
"Our success on the restart kicks is the result of hard work," said Campbell. "We work on it in practice all the time.
"I was looking to score on the shot," she added.
Defense and goalkeeping have been Freehold’s bread and butter all year, and for one last time, they were being called upon to carry the Colonials again.
The Rams are a highly skilled team with its passing and footwork.
If you want to know who the leading scorer on the opposition is, just look to see who Cristen Grimm is marking. The sophomore has more than held her own against some of the state’s best players, and Saturday, she had the relentless Kelly Sanders of Ramsey. The duel between the two was worth the price of admission. Sanders showed why she is a major talent with her instinctive moves, but Grimm was equally impressive in not giving her any room to operate.
Grimm’s marking talents and the ability of Katie Polo and Hassel to go sideline to sideline gave teams little room to attack, and whenever anyone got through, there was sweeper Campbell there to clean it up and then trigger the transition to offense.
If all else failed, there was keeper Jen Towers, the stopper.
Hassel had a simple reason behind the Borough’s defensive success.
"We play together," she said.
All of the Borough’s defensive talents were required to hold down a speedy Ram team that kept the pressure on, with midfielders like Sanders and Casey Creamer finding the passing lanes.
Ramsey finally struck for the equalizer in the 59th minute off a corner kick. Nikki Giunta placed her kick perfectly in front of the Freehold net. Towers leaped up to catch the ball in midair and got her hands on it, but in traffic, the ball was knocked loose, and Casey Clifford deposited the ball into an open net.
The match stayed deadlocked at 1-1 through regulation time and went into overtime, the third straight for Freehold.
It was sudden death overtime for the state title. If no one scored, then co-champions would be declared. To the credit of both the Rams and the Colonials neither played for a tie. Some of the best scoring opportunities for both teams came in the extra session.
Moses, who used his entire lineup, got a spark in overtime from Christy Buble. She and Holly Rackett made some good runs up the field, but Ramsey’s swift Jen Brito did not let them materialize into breakaways
With under five minutes remaining in the second overtime, the game and season were over suddenly as the Rams’ Sanders delivered the game-winner with authority.
The Rams’ Giunta ran down a loose ball, kept in bounds and headed for the corner where she delivered a wonderful crossing pass that Sanders slammed home with power by a helpless Towers.
"We’ve been averaging just over a goal a game, and sooner or later it’s going to catch up to you," Moses pointed.
Hassel, the senior back, said that a tie and a co-championship was never an option for the Colonials.
"We talked about it and said that we didn’t want to be co-champions."
A co-championship may have rung hollow for the Colonials on Saturday night, but it would have acknowledged that there were two champions on the field.