Karns City girls beat Brockway to advance in postseason
KARNS CITY — Two weeks ago, Karns City’s girls soccer team dropped a 4-1 decision at Brockway.
But someone was missing.
Katelyn VanDyke.
“We had three starters out with injury for that game and Katelyn was one of them,” KC coach Tracy Dailey said. “That was also our third game of that week. Brockway has a good team and played well in that game. It wasn’t our night.”
VanDyke, a junior midfielder, played against the Lady Rovers in the District 9 Class 1A semifinal Thursday night at Diehl Stadium. And this was the Gremlins’ night, with VanDyke contributing two goals and an assist to KC’s 3-1 victory.
No. 2 seed Karns City (13-6) advances to the 1A title game at 5 p.m. Wednesday against top-seeded Elk County Catholic at Brookville. ECC defeated Forest, 1-0, in the other semifinal.
“Katelyn had a tremendous game tonight,” KC senior forward Phoebe Brandon said. “She made a lot of plays and got us going. Her pass to me was perfect. We were fired up for this game since they beat us last time.”
VanDyke sent Brandon in on a breakaway with a long lead pass less than four minutes into the game. Brandon made no mistake in slipping a shot past Brockway (11-7) goalkeeper Molly Vivian.
The Lady Gremlins scored again with just a minute and 19 seconds left before halftime. VanDyke dribbled around three defenders and deftly deposited the ball in the right corner of the net.
VanDyke extended the KC lead to 3-0 just 34 seconds into the second half. Vivian made a save on an initial Gremlin shot from close range in the box. The ball bounced over to VanDyke, who was all alone to register the quick goal.
“Stay strong on the play. Just keep working, no matter what the clock says,” Brandon said. “That’s how we got those two goals.”
“Karns City does that to a lot of teams,” Brockway coach Robert Rice said of the late and early tallies. “I wouldn’t call them killer goals. You have to respond to them, though. We failed to do that.
“We had four to six good scoring chances in the first half. We didn’t finish. Soccer can be cruel in the sense that those missed opportunities can come back and bite you.”
Brockway’s Ana Hughes, Ava Daugherty and Ruby Smith all shot wide of the net on open shots in the first half. Hughes had a free kick from 28 yards out early in the second half that whistled just wide of the right corner of the net.
Dailey said she emphasizes having her team ready to play from the opening whistle of each half.
“It’s important to get that jump, get right into it,” the coach said. “I think that played a factor in two of our goals.”
VanDyke and Brandon have roughly 18 goals each on the season.
The Lady Gremlins had 12 shots on net to Brockway’s five. KC goalkeeper Peyton Claypool made a diving save on a Giada Bonetto shot from in the box to temporarily preserve the shutout with 13 minutes remaining.
The Lady Rovers finally broke through in the 73rd minute. A third successive corner kick by Hughes — KC knocked the first two out of bounds — resulted in freshman forward Daugherty heading a shot in.
Brockway had eight corner kicks on the night to KC’s three.
“We beat them in the regular season for the first time in 10 years,” Rice said. “All of our losses this year came against ranked teams. Karns has a great program. I have a lot of respect for what they do here.”
Karns City will be going for its 28th District 9 title in 32 years when it meets ECC on Wednesday.
