PHS Girl's Soccer Advances in State Tourney

The first 80 minutes wasn't enough.

The first 10 minute overtime settled nothing.

With 4:42 left in the second overtime, however, visiting Pomperaug scored the only goal of the game to knock Berlin out of the Class L state tournament, 1-0, in the second round.

It looked for most of the game that this one would be decided by penalty kicks. Three of the eight Class L second round games were decided by PKs. While both teams had chances, less than a hand full of them were very dangerous.

Pomperaug made the most of its best scoring chance in the second overtime. A corner kick was driven into the six-yard box. It looked as if Berlin freshman goalie Michaela Dehm had the ball but it went through her hands and across the area to an open Paige Foschi. The Pomperaug sophomore kicked the deflected ball into the low left corner for the only score of the game.

"It looked like a big mess in front of the goal," Berlin coach Steve Yanosy said. "It bounced right to the Pomperaug girl and that's 95 percent of finishing is being in the right place at the right time."

Berlin lost sturdy freshman sweeper Sophia Morrell to an injury in the first half and the Redcoats were forced to put speedy Cat Voelpel, usually a wing forward, back to defense.

"Obviously it hurt not to have Sophia back there but Cat did a great job and I thought we rallied around it a little bit," Yanosy said. "We used Lauren Roe and Cara Johnson up front and they did a great job. It hurts not to have Cat there because it's hard to defend speed and she's a track star. But everybody gave us what they had."

Kelly Cohen had perhaps the best chance for Berlin when she hit a ball that the Pomperaug goalie was able to get a hand on and deflect wide. Michelle Grieco and Voelpel on a free kick also had good looks at the goal but couldn't find the back of the net.

Pomperaug's Hailey Marquis was dangerous up front. She scored a goal that was disallowed with 6:40 left in the first overtime due to an offside call. She also beat three Berlin defenders with 2:05 left in the first overtime on the left side of the field and got off a point blank shot but it was right at Dehm and the Berlin keeper secure the save.

"It was a great game, played at a high level," Yanosy said. "It was so even, maybe 55-45 if anyone had an advantage. We had some good chances and they had a goal disallowed. It was well played and both teams worked hard.

"We have a very young team. We had seven freshmen out there playing a lot of time but they grew by leaps and bounds from the first practice we had on August 27. They are a great group of kids and they were a pleasure to coach."

Pomperaug moves on to the quarterfinals to play at third-seeded RHAM in Hebron on Nov. 14.