It just goes to show how much I know.
Late in the first half of Saturdays's PIAA Class AA quarterfinal between Selinsgrove and Archbishop Carroll at Hershey High School, I was already working on my lead for the game story. It was to be something like "It was obvious early that this game was either going to be a 1-0 final, or decided on penalty strokes." After all, statistics don't lie, right?
The District 4 champion Seals and District 12 winner Patriots had combined for exactly one shot and one corner -- both by the Seals -- in a scoreless first half. It was played, as they say, between the 25s.
Neither had seriously threatened the cage. There was even talk at the scorers' table about how the respective goalkeepers might be vulnerable in the second half, due to their inactivity in the first.
Good teams make adjustments when needed, and wow, did these teams adjust. The second half was an entirely different animal.
Archbishop Carroll earned its first corner in the third minute, and Seals keeper Amber Wendt was called on to make a sprawling save at the top of the circle in the fifth minute.
Selinsgrove took over for the next six minutes, finally scoring on their fourth corner of that span when Candice Smith converted off Hope Burke's assist for a 1-0 lead.
But just as quickly Carroll roared back, earning six of its seven corners over the next 10 minutes. The momentum shift paid off when Melissa Brosious tied it at 1 off a corner. Less than a minute later, the Patriots were awarded a penalty stroke when Wendt was involved in a multi-player pile-up near the top of the circle. But the stroke was low and Wendt easily smothered it. The stop was a huge confidence boost for Selinsgrove, and set up an even more exciting overtime.
The OT began with a bang when Carroll took the center pass and quickly moved downfield. The Patriots' Hannah Schmitt took a cross and found herself wide open just left of the cage, but her one-timer went wide right less than a minute into the 15-minute overtime.
Fewer than four minutes later, it was the Seals' turn to ramp up the action. Paige Bordner, camped just left of an open cage, couldn't connect on Burke's cross from the right side. Suddenly, these teams were producing corners and shots at a prolific pace. It looked nothing like the first half. When Ashley Youngman finally converted on a spectacular one-on-one goal -- set up by a long pass from Burke -- with 5:30 left in OT, the Seals had advanced to the state semis for the second time in four years with the 2-1 victory.
The three combined goals, along with several missed opportunities by both teams, marked a remarkable change in the style of play after the first 30 minutes. Selinsgrove coach Cathy Keiser credited her assistants, Roz Camp and Cheri Long, with helping to establish a new strategy for the second half and subsequent overtime.
"We needed to work the ball around more before sending it in (to the circle). We needed to transfer the ball better, and that's what we did," Keiser said. "I have to give a lot of credit to my assistants. They're my support system."
Of course, the 7-on-7 overtime opened the field up for both teams, and the up-and-down action was a treat to watch. Youngman's winning goal was merely the finale of several opportunities by both teams that could have gone either way. The teams combined for 17 of their 18 shots over the final 40 minutes of play.
So the next time the first half is a scoreless defensive battle, I'll need to remind myself: There's an entire half -- and maybe more -- to go.
n E-mail comments to mcorbett@dailyitem.com.
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