Peddie girls eliminated in shootout
By: Sean Moylan
For some time now, Katrina Smedley and Caitlin Holtz have been a lethal scoring combination for the Peddie girls’ soccer team. And in this past Wednesday’s Prep A Tournament game at Pennington, Holtz found Smedley open for two more headers into the net, the second of which tied the score at 2-2 with six minutes to go in the second half.
If it was the regular season, the game would have ended in a 2-2 tie because neither side scored in two overtime periods. But there was nothing "regular" about this contest.
The game went to a shootout, which was tied 3-3 after each team took five shots. Then in the sudden-death second shootout round, Christine Lee took Peddie’s first shot and made it. But after the Red Raiders connected on their first two shots, Holtz attempt at a tying goal was stopped by Pennington goalie Chelsea Totura and the Falcons’ postseason was suddenly over.
Still Peddie Cach Ray Cabot was impressed with the way his team battled the top seed.
"I’m tremendously proud with the way we played all day," said Cabot, whose team came from behind to almost win it.
Trailing 1-0 six minutes into the second half, Peddie was awarded a corner and Holtz delivered a sweet pass to Smedley for a score.
"On corner kicks they (Holtz and Smedley) are dangerous," noted Cabot. "Katrina Smedley is very dangerous in the air and her last four goals have come on headers."
Peddie was down 2-1 when Smedley added her second tally. The overtime periods were pretty much even.
"We had a couple of chances and they had a couple of chances," added Cabot.
Then in the first shootout round, Holtz, Lee and Hana Garfing each netted clutch goals to keep Peddie alive. Morever, Cabot was very happy with the play of goalie Bridget Lang.
"Both of their goals against her (Lang) were good goals," added Cabot, whose talented keeper made seven saves in the contest. "Ultimately, it came down to one make. They made two and we made one. It’s (a shootout) not really a spectacular way to end a fantastic game."
Peddie had reached the semis by thumping Princeton Day School, 3-0, in Hightstown last Thursday.
"That was one where we played them on a very windy day. PDS had the wind in the first half. But I felt once we had the wind in the second half, we’d pull it out."
Peddie clobbered PDS in the second stanza with three unanswered goals. Smedley netted two which, of course, were assisted by Holtz, who scored a goal herself. Peddie outshot PDS, 20-4, and Lang had to make just three saves to pick up a shutout.
Peddie (6-8) is scheduled to host Mercersburg Academy on Sunday.

