Conwell-Egan tops Dock Mennonite on PKs in PIAA-1A first round
TOWAMENCIN >> The emotions ran the gamut for Constance Wojton as the Conwell-Egan freshman stepped up for her penalty kick that could decide Tuesday night’s PIAA-1A first round contest.
The result was more straightforward.
“It was absolutely insane,” she said. “I went up for that PK and in my head I was like ‘I’m going to miss.’ And then it went straight to where it wanted to go and everything was good.”
After the visiting Eagles and Dock Mennonite girls soccer teams went regulation then two overtimes without a goal, Wojton finally settled things in the District 12 champs’ favor – ripping a right-footed shot over the keeper into the top left corner of the net to lift Conwell -Egan over the Pioneers 4-2 on penalties.
“That’s like the perfect place – top left corner,” Wojton said. “So I kind of just aim for that cause I knew most goalies can’t catch that.”
Meeting in states for the sixth time in the past nine seasons – their last PIAA matchup coming in 2018 – CEC and Dock battled in a tight, back-and-forth affair with both sides produced a few scoring opportunities but finishing 110 minutes of play knotted at zeroes.
A save by goalie Laura Frederick had the District 1 champ Pioneers up 2-1 after two rounds of PKs but Dock missed its next two while Conwell-Egan converted its final three to reach the state quarterfinals for the third time in five seasons and the first time since 2018.
“I thought it was an evenly-matched game,” Dock Mennonite coach Stacey Vaitis-Dubost said. “The intensity was there for both sides at different points of the game and the amount of chances were pretty even so it was a competitive and evenly-matched game, it was impressive to watch, it was just unfortunate it comes down to [PKs] – you got to find a winner somehow.”
The Eagles (3-5-1) advance to face Fairfield – which beat Mount Calvary Christian 2-0 Tuesday for the District 3 title – Saturday for a spot in the semifinals. Conwell-Egan last reached the PIAA semis in 2012.
“After practice we do PKs all the time,” CEC coach Andy Adamiec said. “And I had five girls who were the best. And matter of fact, we pretty much changed pretty much any game there’s a penalty kick whoever had the best penalties that day would be taking penalties during the game.
“Obviously it doesn’t happen often and over the years this is first time since I’ve been here – and I’ve been doing this for 20 years – that we actually got in a shootout.”
Dock Mennonite, which won its first District 1 title since 2018, ends its season at 12-3-0, coming just short of making the state quarters for the first time since 2015.
“Last year we lost in the [district] semifinal 4-1 to MaST [Charter] so this year playing with a lot of freshman, playing with the returning seniors and we really came close this year so I think winning meant a lot this year.” Dock senior Lauren Moatemri said. “Weekend practices, holidays we practiced, we’ve been practicing for this since the end of June, beginning of July so I think it really meant a lot that we were able to come this far, we won our league with most goals which was amazing.”
After both sides converted their first penalties, Frederick gave Dock an opening, diving slightly to her left to deny CEC’s second effort from the spot. Moatemri proceeded to make it 2-1 Pioneers by placing her shot into the top left corner.
“We just practiced them the last two weeks but I think we did pretty good,” Moatemri said. “We had good amount of people who were willing to take them.”
The Eagles’ Samantha Terry and Julia McVey both found the back of the net the following two rounds. Dock sent a shot over the crossbar on its third try while the Pioneers’ effort in its fourth round hit off the right post. Conwell-Egan third straight conversion by Wojton sealed the win.
“We’ve practiced PKs all week,” Vaitis-Dubost said. “Since last week, we’ve practiced multiple times. Our goalie was ready, I mean, she came up big. But we’ve added pressure situations to see if they can handle the pressure during the PKs and it just comes down to – it’s unfortunate – just two unlucky breaks.”
The Pioneers came into Tuesday off a 6-0 win over Calvary Christian in the District 1-1A final last Thursday but were shut out for just the second time this season. Vaitis-Dubost said Conwell-Egan frustrated Dock’s attempts to attack from the outside.
“Their coach did his homework on us so he found where our strengths were and we found where their strengths were, which was their center mid and ours is up top and using our flanks,” she said. “So they were able to kind of switch their formation and we struggled to kind of adapt to that because all season no one’s been able to compete with us down the flanks. So that was really difficult for us to kind of adjust to that but kudos to him, he was a great coach.”
In the first half, Dock’s Peyton Scialanca charged into the 18-yard box with only CEC keeper Jessica Gentile to beat but Gentile’s sliding effort blocked the shot and the ball was cleared by the Eagles.
Scialanca had another chance before the break but her blast went high over the net.
Conwell-Egan’s best opportunity to score before PKs came in the second half when Alanna Scancella flicked a header that bounced towards an open goal. Moatemri, however, cleared the ball away from the goal line with McVey unable to tap it in at the far left post.
The Eagles earned a corner off the near-miss and sent a ball into the box near the far right post but could not get a player on the end of it.
In final minute of regulation, a shot by Scialanca was deflected out for a corner. A leaping Kenzie Derstine got a piece of the service sent to the far right post but the ball went wide of the goal.
In the first overtime, Scancella could not connect on a low cross sent into the box while CEC’s Gia Brennan put a shot from outside the box wide left.
Dock Mennonite had a free kick in the second overtime’s last minute but the ball bounced through the box and out for a goal kick. In the final seconds, Scialanca got into the box only for her shot to be blocked by Maddie Chapman.
