Cougars win shoot-out to advance to state final
Irvine pushes
all the right buttons
in upset of Lacey
BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Above, Colts Neck’s Lyndsey Farrar tries to keep the ball in bounds in front of Lacey’s Pat Cohen during their Group II semifinal game in Neptune on Nov. 18. At right, teammates Meighan Kelly and Michele Fazzari celebrate the Cougars’ win following a shoot-out.

NEPTUNE — Dave Irvine had a hunch.

When he assembled his Colts Neck’s soccer team for the shoot-out that would determine whether it was the Cougars or Lacey that would advance to the Group III state championship match, he kept it very simple.

"I said ‘I need five’," he explained. "Meighan Kelly said ‘only if you need me.’

"Penalty kicks are mental," he added. "Meighan is mentally tough. I had a real good feeling about her."

Sure enough, the time would arrive when the team ‘needed’ Kelly, in the sudden death portion of the shoot-out. She would step up and place the ball 12 yards from the ever-shrinking goal, with the opportunity to send Colts Neck to the state championship game for the first time.

"I wanted the responsibility as a senior," she said. "I always try and do the same thing (with penalty kicks). I looked left and then straight. I was going bottom-right the whole time."

Kelly slid her penalty kick just inside the right post, past a diving Jennifer Pontier, the Lions’ keeper, to win the shoot-out, 3-2, at the Group III semi-final game played Nov. 18 in Neptune. The teams had played to a scoreless tie through regulation and sudden death overtime bringing on the shoot-out to determine who advanced.

"We came here with nothing to lose, but we wanted to win," said Kelly. "This is something special."

Colts Neck’s Michele Fazzari emerges from a pack of players to head the ball up field during the Cougars’ win on Nov. 18.

It’s no longer enough for the Colts Neck girls’ to prove that they can play with anyone. Now they want championships.

With the Central Jersey Group III title already in the trophy case, the Cougars had the chance to put the larger Group III state title next to it (that Group III championship game was played against Ridge, the North Jersey Section 1 champion at the College of New Jersey on Nov. 22, after this week’s "News Transcript" deadline).

To get to the state final, the Cougars (20-1) had to go through a talented Lacey squad (22-2), ranked No. 3 in the state, which had won the Shore Conference Tournament recently by ripping through a Red Bank Catholic team that had handed the Cougars their only loss of the season. The Lions followed that up with a South Jersey crown.

It was a formidable task for Colts Neck, and one that required some changes to the lineup. It’s considered risky, at best, for a coach to make changes in a tournament. As a coach, you’re supposed to stick with the what got you there. But after some serious tossing and turning, Irvine and assistant coach Doug Phillips realized there was only one way to go against Lacey, and that was to move the team’s offensive firepower back in order to neutralize Lacey’s lethal speed."It was our best option to hang with them," noted Irvine.

CHRIS KELLY Colts Neck’s Katelyn Gilanyi battles with Lacey’s Lauren Cooney during the Nov. 18 Group II semifinal in Neptune.

Center midfielder Kelly would become a marking back, assigned to Lacey’s scoring machine, Traci DePasquale. She would be replaced in the middle by high-scoring forward Michele Fazzari, who would take on a more defensive role.

"Meighan was the only one who could cover Traci," said Irvine. "She’s tough mentally and physically. She can run up and down the field all day. Her fitness level is freakish. I had a hunch that she would come through.

"Michele is an athlete," he added. "People see her scoring more than 20 goals, but she’s more than a scorer. She can play anywhere. Our two senior captains stepped up."

Irvine admitted that the lineup changes were not an easy sell to his players.

"They were a little hesitant at first, but after the first couple of minutes of the game, they saw that it was working," Irvine said.

Kelly proved she was not only talented enough, but tenacious enough to prevent DePasquale from getting operating room.

Late in the first half, Cassie Gioia, who compliments DePasquale well, went down with an injured elbow and was lost for the game.

In the first half, neither Colts Neck nor Lacey could sustain any serious attack. But what was evident was that Colts Neck was able to stay with the Lacey. The Lions’ speed was not running the Cougars off the field.

It wasn’t until the 20-minute mark of the second half that Lacey was final able to string some passes together and begin a concentrated attack on the Colts Neck goal. Jessica Newport, Nicole Loureigh and Nicole Keiser were pushing the ball forward, finding whatever small seams there were in Colts Neck’s defense.

However, the Cougar defense held its ground, and the Lions were reduced to having the territorial edge without anything to show for it on the scoreboard.

Colts Neck, meanwhile, hadn’t abandoned its offense. The Cougars were not playing for a shoot-out.

"We were looking for chances to counter-attack," Irvine noted. "We were able to a get a few chances."

Suzanne Witkowski, Danielle DeNigris and Kristen O’Dowd generated the scoring chances with swift runs along the sidelines.

In overtime, it was more of the same, with the best scoring chance from Lacey, but a diving save by the Cougar goalie on Lauren Barker’s hard-grounder kept the game scoreless.

The game marched towards what had already seemed inevitable — a shoot-out.

In the first round, with Lacey shooting first, the teams were still tied, 2-2. The teams were 1-1 after their first four shooters. Jessica Crankshaw put Lacey up 2-1. The game and season was on the line for Colts Neck, and Suzanne Witkowski came through, tucking her shot into the right corner.

The shoot-out went to sudden death, and coaches were allowed to make substi­tutes. Areman gave Colts Neck the chance to win when she made a save on Crankshaw’s shot.

Areman said the key for her in shoot-outs is to look at how the shooter lines up, and adds some psychology as well.

"I look to see how they line-up the ball and what side they are shooting from, and I look them in the eyes," she said. "I wouldn’t let them beat me. We deserved to win."

Irvine turned to Kelly with the game on the line and the senior responded an­gling her shot perfectly inside the right goal post, and it was on the Group III state championship game for Colts Neck.