BROCKWAY – Senior Payton Kloss scored late, but an early deficit was too much to overcome as St. Marys knocked off Bradford High 2-1 in the District 9 Class AAA soccer semifinals Tuesday.
‘We made two big mistakes in our defensive third and they were able to capitalize on them,” head coach Dennis Morrisroe said. “We didn’t capitalize on the mistakes that we thought we were going to be able to, and that was the difference in the game.”
St. Marys’ Kira Pesce and Lauren Eckert scored in the first and second half, respectively, as the Lady Dutch built a 2-0 lead that was too much for Bradford to overcome. This was all despite the fact the Lady Owls controlled possession for most of the game, but just couldn’t find a goal.
“We just couldn’t finish is what it seemed,” Morrisroe said. “We did a real nice job. I thought that the girls did a super job of getting possession, making good receives, making good decisions with the ball. We were able to out-possess them in our defensive third and the middle third, but we couldn’t get enough possession in the final third to finish.”
Pesce scored with just under 11 minutes remaining in the first half for the Lady Dutch to take a 1-0 halftime lead. Eckert doubled that after Bradford goalkeeper Melody Campbell bobbled a free kick with 14:50 left in the game.
Kloss finally did score with 2:54 left in the game, but it was too little too late for the Lady Owls.
“It was awful late,” Morrisroe said. “We’ll take one anytime. It didn’t seem to give us the emotional lift that we were going to need to make a real serious run. By that time in the game, it was a lot of emotion to overcome.”
Bradford, which started three sophomores and one freshman, returns a bevy of talent from a team that may have been a year or two ahead of schedule in terms of results.
“This group played so far above themselves all season long,” Morrisroe said. “When we were looking at the schedule at the beginning of the season, knowing what we had coming back, we thought we’d be .500 or a little better than .500 because we were so young. To end up 10-7 with this game and have the effort that we had tonight, it sets us up for sure for some real good things for the program.”
The Lady Owls, however, lose seven seniors. Skylar Llewellyn, a defender for Bradford, played well controlling the defense, according to Morrisroe.
“She just anchored the center of the defense and really just directed and moved folks and did a nice job of holding up the middle of that defense against an experienced St. Marys’ attack,” Morrisroe said. “I thought she really dug in and had a nice game tonight.”
Midfielder Morgan Shade controlled the central part of the field and was also singled out for her play by her coach.
“She’s only a junior, but holy cow,” Morrisroe said, “for her to step up and show the energy and the leadership she did for us tonight. She was a little bit of everywhere tonight.”
With the victory, St. Marys advances to play DuBois in the Class AAA final.
