WSOC Beats Odds, Stays Together in Comeback PK Win
Nov 28 | Women's Soccer
By Tom Luicci
ScarletKnights.com
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Down 0-2 in the best-of-five penalty kick stage against No. 1-ranked Virginia in Friday's Elite Eight - a seemingly-impossible situation to come back from -- there wasn't a single Rutgers women's soccer player who'd lost faith with this team's ability to somehow find a way to wind.
Special seasons like the one the Scarlet Knights are having lend themselves to that kind of confidence.
The head coach, though, admits there was a sliver of doubt.
"Was I worried? A little bit," said Mike O'Neill. "At the same time, we have one of the top goalkeepers in the country. I had a lot of faith in her. In soccer you need to be good but you need to be lucky. too
"We had people step up. But this is what this team has been doing all year long. Someone steps up and get it done."
Thanks to an against-all-odds sequence of events, Rutgers prevailed in the ninth stage of penalty kicks, 7-6, to earn the program's first Final Four appearance, shutting down the nation's second-best scoring offense on their home field with a steady dose of the trademark suffocating defense that has carried the Scarlet Knights all season.
No. 9-ranked Rutgers (19-3-3) will face the winner of Sunday's Penn State-West Virginia game next Friday in the College Cup in Cary, N.C. The national championship game is Sunday.
"I always want to say I can do one more level with my play," said senior Erica Skroski, the Big Ten Defender of the Year. "But I think in these circumstances, Brianne Reed, Maggie Morash, Erin Smith and I played with as much determination and motivation as we were capable of, with the commitment to do what we had to do. It was an amazing 110-minute effort."
Scoreless in regulation in large part because Skroski &Co. simply refused to allow the high-powered Cavaliers find the back of the net, Rutgers was the aggressor in both 10-minute overtime sessions, appearing to have allowed Virginia to punch itself out during 90 minutes of regulation.
When overtime was scoreless as well, a Final Four trip came down to penalty kicks.
And when Skroski and Ciarrocca missed the first two attempts, Virginia (19-1-3) looked to be on its way to a return appearance in the College Cup.
"In the past when I've missed a penalty kick I immediately would think `I can't believe it. I just ruined the game,' " said Skroski. "But that didn't happen this time. I knew (goalkeeper) Casey Murphy would do something to bail us out."
O'Neill had Murphy, the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year, attempt the third penalty kick, and the sophomore came through. It turns out there was another reason behind having Murphy attempt that particular penalty kick with Rutgers in such a deep hole.
"When Casey went to take the PK and scored I felt it was exactly what she needed on the other side," said O'Neill. "From the PK she became more confident."
On Virginia's next penalty kick, Murphy made the save.
Suddenly, Rutgers had a flicker of life.
"I had no doubt in my mind we would find a way to win. I have 100 percent faith in Casey," said fifth-year senior Cassie Inacio.
Tied at 3-3 when Virginia's high-scoring Mackenzy Doniak approached her penalty kick, the Scarlet Knights were facing the end of the season if Doniak made her shot. She hit the crossbar, forcing sudden-death penalty kicks.
The Scarlet Knights eventually prevailed, 7-6, in the ninth round when junior Tori Prager made hers and Murphy stopped the Cavaliers' Tina Iordanou with a diving save.
"I don't even know how to explain what this means," said Reed, a senior and First Team All-Big Ten selection. "To be able to do this my senior year in my last go-around, going to the Final Four with this team, it's just an incredible feeling. I know when we were kids we looked up to the teams that were in the Final Four College Cup and now we're the ones there. It's amazing."
Virginia, a dynamic scoring team, had not been shut out since last year's national championship game. But this Rutgers defense, which posted a school-record 19thshutout, leads the country in shutouts and goals-against average.
"I'm very proud of the defense for fighting for 110 minutes," said Murphy. "They did a great job denying all services and shots. I knew I was going to have to come up with a couple of saves but boy did they make my job a lot easier by denying so much.
"I thought (Skroski) played the game of her life. I think the team played one of the best defensive games I've ever seen. I'm just so proud of Skroski and the rest of the team. She motivated all of us to make it to the Final Four."
