Early goal costly to Freeport girls
ADAMS TWP — High school soccer games last 40 minutes or more.
This one turned in less than two.
Moments after Freeport freshman Riley Otterman just missed deflecting home a cross from Sidney Shemanski one minute into Monday night's WPIAL Class 2A girls semifinal at the Mars Athletic Complex, Yough broke free the other way.
Senior midfielder Justine Appolonia dribbled the ball along the right sideline from midfield to near the goal-line. She fired a perfect cross to freshman forward McKenzie Pritts, who rifled it past goalkeeper Maddie Zarichnak only a minute and 46 seconds into the game.
The Cougars (17-1-1) went on to post a 3-0 win over Freeport (16-5). Yough advanced to the WPIAL finals for the first time in program history. It will face North Catholic
The Yellowjackets, shut out for the first time all season, will play South Park in a PIAA play-in game Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.
“They beat us 6-1 in the quarterfinals last year,” Freeport coach Brittni Grenninger said of South Park. “We have to refocus and get ready. Our season's not over.
“You just hate to give up the first goal, especially in the playoffs. It changes how you play the game.”
Yough coach Dann Appolonia agreed.
“Once you fall behind, you have to become more aggressive offensively,” he said. “We were able to counter attack off that.”
The Yellowjackets nearly tied the game late in the first half. Shemanski, a 37-goal scorer, got free in the box and got off a shot.
Yough goalkeeper Sara Krocheck came out and challenged the shot, knocking it back toward Shemanski. The latter got off a second shot, but it was deflected away with 1:50 left in the half.
“That was probably our best chance,” Grenninger said. “After we missed there, it deflated our sails a bit.”
Natalie Vilchek scored her 18th goal of the season 2:55 into the second half. Pritts netted her second goal of the contest — and 25th of the year — with 16:34 left to wrap it up.
Justine Appolonia is Yough's leading scorer with 32 goals. She had a pair of assists Monday.
The Cougars average 5.8 goals per game. They've allowed only 12 all season.
“We do score a lot of goals, but our game is defense first,” Coach Appolonia said. “Our defense does a tremendous job of denying penetration, chasing balls and bringing the ball ahead to set up our offense.”
Yough scored on all three of its shots on goal, but each was a high-percentage scoring chance. Freeport got 12 shots on net, but nearly all were from 25 yards out or more.
“They are a very physical team and we struggled with that,” Grenninger said. “We have to work more on our shots from outside and making those chances work.”
The Yellowjackets managed only one corner kick all night. Yough generated four corner kicks, but did not score off any of them.
