There would be no second-half comeback this time.

Two days after overcoming a two-goal deficit to win their sectional opener, the Valley Central girls’ soccer team was unable to overcome a three-goal halftime deficit on Wednesday afternoon in a 7-0 loss to the top-seeded Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders in the Section 9 Class AA semifinals.

“Monroe played really well,” Valley Central coach Jon Walsh said. “I thought our girls fought but they got on top of us, and they never looked back.”

The Crusaders got that jump early on with a goal by Lauren Morgante off an assist by Ella Natale. Then Anna Maggi added a second goal, connecting from 24 yards out in the 20th minute.

Diane Lange added the Crusaders’ third goal with about 48 seconds left in the half to send the Crusaders into the break with a comfortable lead.

“We made a couple of tactical adjustments,” Walsh said. “But we told the girls, we’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve got to work hard and fight for the ball and not give them anything easy. They’re a really good team and they’re going to be hard to beat going forward.”

Monroe-Woodbury got two second half goals from Natal and single goals by Francesca Donovan and Sarah Hudson.

The fourth-seeded Vikings needed some second half magic just to get to Monroe-Woodbury as they recovered from a 2-0 deficit in the second half to beat No. 5 Pine Bush, 4-3, on Oct. 25 at Valley Central High School.

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 were in a similar situation in the semifinals last year,” Walsh said. “We got down 0-2 and I think it was three goals in 12 minutes. We have it in us. We’re young, we’re learning and we’re figuring it out. We’ll build off this and come back stronger.”

The Vikings entered this season, having lost 11 seniors off the team that beat the Crusaders during the “Fall 2” season in March and April to win the section title in the COVID-19-altered season. They started slow and played their best soccer in the back half of the season.
“Those 11 girls that we lost last year all played together for so long,” Walsh said. “This is a group that are at different age level and different clubs, so we’ve got to gel together as a team, and they did a great job of coming together.”

This year the Vikings will lose four seniors, Olivia Welcome, Olivia Watson, Kyrah Kelly and Marley Peterson.
Kelly stepped into the net to fill in for starting goalkeeper Grace Suchy after she suffered an injury.

“Kyrah has been an amazing team leader this year, rallying the girls around her,” Walsh said. “We lost Grace Suchy when we played Monroe two weeks ago and she stepped right up and said, ‘I’ll play goal.’ You feel horrible for her on a day like today, but we’re so proud of her at the same time because of what she did.”

The Vikings are expected to return about eight of their 11 starters from this year’s team. That’s eight players that have tasted sectional success and have seen what it takes to succeed on that level.

“We’re building off of all that good stuff,” Walsh said. “We’ve got a good young group, good kids that are going to fill in some of the holes that we’ll have and hopefully we’ll be back here next year challenging.”