Coughlin advances to 3A title game with OT victory

TUNNEL HILL – After fighting to turn away Coughlin penalty corner attempts for much of the game, Lackawanna Trail appeared to be evening out play late in regulation Monday afternoon.

Alyssa Monaghan and Katie Gabriele needed just seconds of overtime to stop any momentum the Lions may have been gaining.

Gabriele’s score 19 seconds into overtime lifted Coughlin to a 1-0 victory and sent the Crusaders into the District 2 Class 3A championship game.

“It was such a tough game,” Coughlin coach Colleen Wood said. “It was nice for someone to finally put one in.”

Coughlin will play Wyoming Valley West at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Crestwood High School for the district title.

The Crusaders planned to be aggressive in overtime, but with Lackawanna Trail possessing the first hit, it was surprising how quickly the chance came.

“We always try to score quick,” Gabriele said. “Whenever you get into overtime, you want to try to get it done quick.”

Monaghan made sure Gabriele had a shot. She stole a weak hit to start the overtime and passed to Gabriele, who took advantage of the extra space afforded in 7v7 overtimes to dribble through the middle of the Trail defense.

Although she never seemed to be in complete control, Gabriele never slowed down. When she got into the circle she cut left and sent a reverse-stick shot into the right corner of the cage for the winning goal.

“I just kept saying, ‘Keep going, keep going,’” Gabriele said. “We needed this.

The quick turn of events stunned Trail coach Sandy Spott, whose team had been 2-0-1 in overtime.

“I was shocked,” Spott said. “Right from the first pass, we made a mistake and that continued right down the field.”

Gabriele, at right inner, and Shelly Black, at center mid, had generated much of the offense that set up penalty corner opportunities for the Crusaders during regulation play.

Coughlin effectively took advantage of its big hits to get the ball deep into Trail’s end of the field.

“We did not play well,” Spott said. “We have a very hard time playing the long ball.

“We don’t play well against that style. We couldn’t adjust. We couldn’t get shots off.”

Coughlin did not get as many shots as Wood would have liked out of a 15-2 advantage in penalty corners.

The Crusaders had 10 penalty corners in the first half when Trail had none. Although they got four repeat chances out of their corners, the Crusaders only got off two shots in the 10 tries.

“We bobbled some,” Wood said, “but it was mostly their defense coming out so strong.”

Even when trapped in its own end, Trail stopped many of Coughlin’s chances before they became too dangerous.

“All game long, we had a ton of shots, but their goalie and their defense did such a nice job stopping everything we tried,” Wood said.

After being outshot, 12-5, to that point, Trail had a 5-4 edge in shots over the final 10:28 of regulation.

As was the case at the end of the first half, the clock ran out in regulation with Coughlin attempting a corner. After continuing play by earning two more attempts after time expired in the first half, Coughlin was stopped on the first attempt at the end of regulation, setting up overtime.