Eighty minutes of playoff intense girls soccer could not produce a goal, so host Council Rock North and Quakertown battled into extra time in this Tuesday, Oct. 25 tilt.
There, CR North sophomore striker and leading scorer Mia Cairone came through as she has done so often this year, scoring the lone goal about four minutes into the first 15-minute overtime and giving the Indians (12-4-3) a hard-earned 1-0 win over the Panthers (9-7-2) in the first round of the PIAA District One Class 4A playoffs.
The triumph sends 15th seed CR North to Pennridge Thursday night, Oct. 27 to face the second seed Rams (17-1), who got a first-round bye. The loss ends the season for 18th seed Quakertown.
Tuesday’s win sure didn’t come easy for Council Rock North. After both teams fought through regulation time, overtime had not gone too long when Cairone managed to gain control of the ball and found herself with some space and a good angle on Quakertown goalkeeper Darby Vail. Cairone didn’t miss, sending a shot into the right corner of the net and the Panthers into the offseason.
“It was kind of a blur,” said Cairone after providing her sudden-death ending to a game played in a light, intermittent drizzle on the synthetic turf at CR North’s Walt Snyder Stadium.
“It was kind of like, don’t overthink it, just get it past the goalie and hit it into that far corner. I have a great line behind me to feed me the ball and support me always, which is great.”
It was the 15th goal of the season for the Indians’ leading scorer. Cairone’s dramatic game finisher avoided something she wasn’t thrilled about facing, a contest decided on penalty kicks if it had remained scoreless after two 15-minute overtimes.
“Penalty kicks were in the back of my mind the whole game,” she said. “I know we have a strong lineup for taking them, but I was just worried it would have to get to that at some point, and it was kind of nerve wracking.”
Council Rock North coach Gavin Flannigan agreed with his standout striker.
“I think you always have to think about (penalty kicks),” he said. “But we felt like we had the better of the play and just had to keep pushing. It was just a matter of creating that final moment, and luckily Mia did that for us, again.”
Very little seemed to separate the two teams throughout most of the game as both squads played sound, cohesive defense and goalkeepers Vail and Danielle Eden came up with some big stops when they needed to. Quakertown’s Ashlyn Calabria and CR North’s Jayne Bogle and Maya Raghunandanan were among those who came fairly close to scoring at various points in the game.
“It was a really tightly played game by both squads,” Quakertown coach Jon Gingrich said. “I thought both defenses played extremely well and thought we had the same amount of pressures going forward as they had. When overtime started, our intensity just wasn’t as big as theirs.”
Despite the ending, the 2022 season held a lot of positives for Quakertown, said Vail.
“Our opposition was just so good today,” she noted. “They were attacking the whole game and took advantage of the opportunity when they got it. It came down to a one-on-one situation and she knew how to tuck it in, but I’m just really proud of our team. I love my teammates. We all worked hard all year. It always seemed like we were the underdogs, and I’m just proud of us for getting to this point.”
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