Crushers knock off Rams

BY TONY KEIM
For The Tribune-Democrat

JOHNSTOWN November 04, 2009 12:20 am

— If any fan was more than three minutes late getting to Tuesday night’s District 6 girls soccer semifinal between Bishop McCort and Laurel Valley, they missed the game-winning goal.
Bishop McCort (16-1-2) got all of the offense it needed early in a 3-0 victory over Laurel Valley at Point Stadium.
The Crushers got on the board first with a goal by Emily Basile. The senior midfielder knew her team had to set the tone early.
“We wanted to come out intense against them,” she said. “We knew if we won we had a chance to play Richland again on Thursday.”
With 16:54 left in the first half, Basile and the Crushers struck again. Basile took a corner kick from sophomore Beth Sheridan and punched the ball past goaltender Sarah Youngblood.
“It was important for us to get up on them early,” Bishop McCort coach Joe Petak said. “We knew they were a second-half team, and we wanted to keep pressure on them all night.”
The Crushers and goalie Maranda McIntosh were able to keep Laurel Valley’s leading scorer, Emily Daugherty, and the rest of the Rams off the scoreboard. McIntosh in fact, only faced three shots in the first half due to a stout defensive effort on the Crushers’ end of the field as well as Basile’s offensive output.
Bishop McCort added the final goal of the night when junior forward Samantha Schultz attempted to center the ball to a teammate but instead it was headed by a Laurel Valley defender into her own net.
The Crushers’ win coupled with Richland’s victory in the other semifinal match set up a final that Basile is looking forward to.
“We’ve already beaten them once, so I know that we will beat them again,” said Basile.
The victory Basile was speaking of came on Sept. 21 as Bishop McCort won 1-0 at Richland. The two teams played again last month in a game that ended in a 1-1 tie.
“You can’t take anything away from Richland, they’ve played tough all year,” Petak said. “There’s a very good chance this will end up a 1-0 game with whoever makes the first mistake being the one on the wrong side of the scoreboard.”