Pine Bush falls to VC in Class AA tournament

By Mike Zummo
Posted 11/3/21

The Pine Bush girls’ soccer team entered the second half with a two-goal lead.

Before five minutes had elapsed, it was gone, and fifth-seeded Pine Bush was eliminated from the Section 9 …

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Pine Bush falls to VC in Class AA tournament

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The Pine Bush girls’ soccer team entered the second half with a two-goal lead.

Before five minutes had elapsed, it was gone, and fifth-seeded Pine Bush was eliminated from the Section 9 Class AA tournament by a 4-3 loss to the fourth-seeded Valley Central Vikings on Oct. 25, at Valley Central High School.

“We had a first half, a great last 15 minutes or so, but the first 20 minutes coming into the second half, they just completely dominate us winning about every ball,” Pine Bush coach Dan Conley said. “They put their opportunities in the back of the net, and we got caught flat and not ready.”

Minutes after the start of the second half, Valley Central’s Riley Lewis scored off an assist from Jenna O’Connor. And then in the 44th minute, O’Connor tied the game with a goal of their own. Mackenzie Delmonico broke the tie with a goal in the 31st minute and Sophia Stahl delivered what turned out to be the decisive goal nearly halfway through the second half.

“We knew it was coming,” Conley said. “We knew they were going to come out and kick it down our throats and run at us and look to put more numbers forward. It’s one thing to say it. It’s another thing when you see it, to see how we respond to it. But VC did a great job to get that.”

Pine Bush added a third goal in the 53rd minute when Deidre Meberg headed a corner kick from Kathryn Kragan into the goal.
Pine Bush got its first goal in the 17th minute on a goal by Kathryn Cragan when she drew out Valley Central goalkeeper Kyrah Kelly and pushed a shot by her. Kragan scored her second goal when she banged a shot off the top crossbar, and it hit at the right tangle at the bottom of the net to give Pine Bush a 2-0 lead late in the half.

“We were possessing the ball a little bit better, moving it around, instead of looking to hit it straight,” Conley said. “Where in the second half those balls have the keepers cutting out and cutting out and were able to get around their backline a little bit.”

The loss ended the best season Pine Bush has had in several years as they finished the regular season with an 8-8-0 record to qualify for the tournament with a roster full of underclassmen. The team only has four seniors: Kymorah Boddie, Angelina Cardone, Hannah Goudreau and Alicia Kretschmer.

This season was a big step forward.

“I think it’s huge,” Conley said. “I know the state is talking about realigning the divisions differently, so I don’t know how that’s going to go one way or another. But to get into the sectional tournament to taste what the playoffs are like.”

The team also has one junior – Amanda Watkins – and the rest is made up of sophomores, freshmen and eighth graders, meaning Pine Bush can pick up the pieces from this season and turn that into future success as the team gets older and more experienced.

“Our goal was to get to this point,” Conley said. “To get into sections. Now it’s to win a sectional game. We were up. This was a very winnable game that we had our opportunities and hopefully learn from it. It’s a miserable kind of feeling right now, but I said, ‘you’ve got to learn from that to go forward with it.’”