Freehold Borough has lost none of its overtime magic. Locked in a scoreless tie with Ocean Township, a soccer team the Colonial girls had already beaten twice this year, they avoided the dreaded shoot-out against a hot goalie when Alexa Rozzi scored in the 99th minute of Friday’s Shore Conference Tournament Round of 16 for the top seed.
“We just refused to lose this game,” said Rozzi.
The Colonials peppered Spartan goalie Marty Mauterer for 35 shots Friday. Sometimes she made incredible stops, such as a diving save off the foot of Shannon Mayrose. Sometimes, the crossbar was her best friend. Regardless, the Colonials couldn’t get a shot by her until the final minute of the second overtime.
Angeles Pantoja kicked a through ball in transition gave Rozzi a clear scoring chance as Mauterer left the goal area to cut down the angle of her shot.
“I touched the ball to the outside, the goalie came out and I slid it by her,” Rozzi said of her golden goal.
Rozzi said the Colonials were not going to give into a hot goalie.
“It makes us want it more,” she said. “It gets frustrating, but you have to maintain your mental toughness.”
Mental toughness and heart the Colonials have in spades and they used those assets to again win an overtime match.
It’s on to the second round for Freehold Borough. The Colonials lost in the SCT semi-final last year and Rozzi pointed out that the team is hungry to regain the title it claimed in 2006.
While the Colonials were going overtime, Freehold Township had something to prove in Manalapan.
The Patriots had seen the A North Division title slip away in the last week of the season and it was the Manalapan Braves who were the beneficiaries. The Braves rode a 3-2 win over the Pats to the division title.
The SCT would provide the Pats with a chance to gain a measure of revenge when they were seeded 11th and the Braves sixth setting up a Round of 16 meeting.
The dangerous Amy Carhart, who has been on fire lately, got past the Patriot defense for two first-half goals and a 2-1 Brave lead.
But the Patriots, who have more overall team speed, were eventually able to take advantage of it and scored twice in the second half for a 3-2 win and a trip to the quarterfinals.
Amanda Dailey, converting a cross from Christina Barthel, tallied Freehold Township’s first half goal.
In the second half, Amy Buckiewicz tied the scored at 22 assisted by Brittany Caponegro in the 53rd minute.
Barthel kicked home of the winning goal just eight minutes later assisted by Gabby Galanti.
The Pats improved to 13-5 overall while Manalapan slipped to 11-3.
The boys began their Round of 16 play on Saturday and the area, especially A North, was well represented.
A North champion Freehold Township (14- 2-1), the No. 1 seed, edged Brick Memorial, 4-3. This was a wild one with Pats scoring all their goals in the first half and then holding off a Mustangs rally in the second half.
Brenden Noesges had a big game for the Pats scoring a goal and assisting on two others. Abe Hamami, Connor Egan and Anthony Fiorletti were the other goal-scorers for the top seeds. Fiorletti scored what turned out to be the game-winner in the 32nd minute assisted by Nick Composto.
Marlboro (11-3-1), the No. 2 seed, beat Rumson-Fair Haven, 2-0, behind goals by Christian Llerena and Nick Kyprianou. Jake Kats, Hunter Gorskie and Dan Weisberger collected assists and Greg Belanger stopped three shots in registering the shut out.
Manalapan (11-4-2), the SCT winner two years ago and a finalist last year, survived in a shoot-out against St. Rose, 3-2. Chris DeFalco and Greg Grzelak scored in regulation for Manalapan, which played again without the injured goalie Jake Grinkevich. Back-up Anthony Fleres again did a great job in goal for the Braves.
The Braves, No. 4 seed, won the shootout 4-1 with Bryan Telzer, Jeff Weitz, DeFalco and Bryan Rice converting for the No. 4 seed.
Defending champion Howell (8-5-3) began its title defense with a solid 2-0 win over Brick Township. Billy Kappock and Cody Calafiore scored for the fifth-seed Rebels.
The SCT finals are at the Neptune High School field Saturday. The boys kick it off at 5 p.m. with the girls final following at 7 p.m.

