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KINGSTON — Emily Smith was in an unfamiliar role for the Lake-Lehman girls soccer team, but she had a familiar teammate with which to work.
Smith received a pass from Chloe Weaver in the opening minute of overtime and turned it into the game-ending and championship-deciding goal.
The freshman midfielder-turned-forward scored 51 seconds into sudden-death overtime to lift Lake-Lehman to a 3-2 victory over Holy Redeemer in a playoff to decide the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 title.
“Chloe Weaver played it to me,” Smith said. “It was perfect.
“She couldn’t have set it up any better. It was awesome. I thanked her so much,” she said.
Weaver sent a pass ahead on the right wing and Smith drilled a shot to bring an end to the game in the first minute of an overtime that was forced by a clutch play from another freshman in the last minute of regulation.
Annie Bagnall, Holy Redeemer’s young scoring leader, tied it with her second goal with 37 seconds left in regulation.
The tying goal set up the potential to make a long night even longer. The teams had played through injuries to both starting goalies and the division’s top scorer on collisions in front of the goal, six cards, two ejections for a fight at midfield and a break while the officials talked to both teams to try to settle down the physical game with 11:23 left.
“Interesting,” was how Lake-Lehman coach Kelly Adamshick described the game. “It was not the typical girls soccer game.
“But, I guess after playing three times, it was what it was.”
The teams split in the regular season and beat everyone else in the division twice to finish 15-1.
Monday’s win not only gave Lake-Lehman the division title, but it set the Black Knights up to have the home field Saturday in a likely rematch in the District 2 Class 2A semifinals. Second-seeded Lake-Lehman and third-seeded Holy Redeemer have byes into Thursday’s quarterfinals where they will need to each win once to force the rematch.
Instead of going through two 10-minute overtimes and the penalty kick shootout that would have followed in Monday’s third meeting, Smith and Weaver ended the game on the first scoring opportunity and first shot of overtime.
Smith, a part-time starter and key reserve when not starting, normally would have been playing outside midfielder when she was on the field.
“We lost one of our forwards to a red card,” Adamshick said. “Emily and Chloe play club together, our two freshmen.
“Actually in practice, they spend a lot of time together.”
Adamshick has seen them pass well to each other in scrimmage situations in practice where Smith does get some work at forward.
“Seeing them score as freshmen and come in and make this big win for us is absolutely awesome,” Adamshick said.
Lake-Lehman outshot Holy Redeemer, 23-12, including a 31-minute stretch of the first half in which it outshot the Royals, 11-0, but could not remove a 1-0 deficit. The Black Knights sent one shot off the crossbar during that time and another off the post while still behind early in the second half. They hit yet another post on the first shot after forcing a 1-1 tie.
Kyra Apaliski got off two quick, hard shots to score the second-half goals for Lake-Lehman.
Apaliski got to a loose ball, spun and fired in a 22-yard, left-footed shot for the tie with 31:25 left. She nailed a 28-yarder high into the left corner with 8:59 left.
Bagnall matched her two-goal effort.
After scoring on a partial breakaway 4:02 in, she sent a 12-yard shot from the left side hard into the top right corner for the tying goal.
“Annie’s an amazing player,” Adamshick said. “We tried to shut her down.”
Stephanie Ayers returned to finish up in goal for Lake-Lehman, making two of her six saves after sitting out 26 minutes of the second half.
Scoring leader Mackenzie Love went out on the same play that put Holy Redeemer goalie Jocelyn Kosik out for the remainder of the game with 17:15 left.
The rough play was not reserved for in front of the goals.
Lake-Lehman’s Amanda Ayers and Holy Redeemer’s Nicole Cavanaugh were red-carded after their altercation at midfield with 11:23 left.
There were also three yellow cards assessed to Lake-Lehman and one to Holy Redeemer during the game.
Lake-Lehman 3, Holy Redeemer 2
Lake-Lehman`0`2`1`—`3
Holy Redeemer`1`1`0`—`2
First half — 1. HR, Annie Bagnall (Kasey Danko), 35:58. Second half — 2. LL, Kyra Apaliski 31:25; 3. LL, Kyra Apaliski 8:59; 4. HR, Annie Bagnall 0:37. Overtime – 5. LL, Emily Smith (Chloe Weaver) 9:09.
Shots — LL 23, HR 12. Saves — LL 6 (Stephanie Ayers 5, Carlyn Blight 1; HR 13 (Jocelyn Kosik 11, Kaylee Soboleski 2). Corner kicks — LL 5, HR 3.
