Downingtown West breaks stalemate in OT for 1-0 win
DOWNINGTOWN >> The Downingtown West girls’ soccer team looked to rebound from an opening season loss to Perkiomen Valley against Owen J. Roberts, another perennial power from the PAC-10, on an exquisite Wednesday afternoon at DiSerafino Stadium.
It took a long time coming, but the defensive stalemate was finally broke early in the first overtime as CeCe Shearer scored the game’s lone goal to give the Whippets a 1-0 victory in the nonleague contest.
“We struggled a little today,” said West coach Meghan Brophy. “We had shades of really good stuff, the shades of not so great stuff. They seem to be playing the last two days without any kind of confidence and that’s something we need to work on.”
After a scoreless 80 minutes of regulation, the two teams went into the first of two scheduled 10-minute overtime sessions.
Lily Pitcherella won a ball in midfield and sent a pass to Shearer, who beat the defense to break in alone. She slotted a shot from about 20 yards out that beat goalie Colby Wasson and nestled into the left corner of the net to set off the celebration.
“The one thing I really loved is that Lily Pitcherella really got that ball rolling,” said Brogan. “So many times in this game we took a bad initial touch and gave the ball away. Yes, she took a bad initial touch, but she went and got the ball back. She was able to slot a ball through and she placed it perfectly.”
“Lilly worked hard to get the ball after a bad touch,” said Shearer. “She kept going and played it to me and I found the corner.”
From the Owen J. Roberts perspective, it was the defensive breakdown that was the most bothersome.
“We made too many mental mistakes out there,” said veteran Owen J. Roberts coach Joe Margusity. “Even on the goal, one of our backs didn’t step properly, so they took advantage of our mistake.”
The first half was a nervy affair that saw chances be a rare commodity. Neither team had a shot on goal until the 5:16 mark when a long range effort from Owen J. senior McKayla Farrow was easily corralled by Whippets’ goalie Kylie Seckinger.
The Wildcats (1-1) ended up with three shots in the half, all from distance that didn’t come close to making Seckinger extend herself.
“We’re thin on forwards. We have two injured right now,” added Margusity. “We just didn’t have the same rhythm with the backups in.”
The Whippets (1-1) ended up recording three shots in the second half, but none came from a dangerous scoring area.
One of the best chances came midway through as Olivia Thompson found herself 1-on-1 with Seckinger. However, the play was ruled offside.
West tried to spring their forwards with through balls, but the passes ended up being too heavy and ended up being gobbled up by Wasson, playing a sweeper keeper role.
“That’s how she plays,” says Margusity. “To have a keeper who reads the game well and be quick off her line, it cleans a lot of the mistakes up.”
West was equally impressive defensively and Brogan heaped praise on her back line.
“The back line, Ava Rightmire, Katie Dougherty and Ella Jahromi, wow. They have really kept us in games. We lost Monday, 1-0. We won today, 1-0. It’s telling that they will be, hoepfully, very stingy.
The offensive struggles, one goal in two games, are something that Brogan hopes can contributed to the quality of opponents and not something that will linger when Ches-Mont play commences.
“I definitely that the quality of opponent has something to do with it,” said Brogan. “For a year and a half we looked to one person to score all our goals for us, and she’s (Ava Minnier) no longer here. We knew last year we need somebody to step up and we’re still looking for that.”
Downingtown West 1, Owen J. Roberts 0, OT
Owen J. Roberts 0 0 0 – 0
Downingtown West 0 0 1 – 1
Dwoningtown West goal: Shearer.
Goalie saves: Wesson (OJR) 2; Seckinger (DW) 5.
