By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com
Defending champion Cougars get double overtime goal from Ele Margelos in 4A West finals
(see Digital Sports for great photos to purchase and videos of the game)
As Quince Orchard was about to receive it's plaque for winning the 4A West girls soccer region title, Coach Peg Keiller directed it into the hands of senior goalie Amanda Whitney.
"I was surprised," Whitney said. "I thought Ele [Margelos] was going to get it given she had the winning goal. Maybe seniority?"
No, it's because if Whitney hadn't made a game-winning save in double overtime, Ele Margelos would have never had a chance at a game-winning goal. And if it weren't for both, Quince Orchard wouldn't have beaten Whitman, 1-0, Monday at Richard Montgomery.
The defending 4A champion Cougars will next face the winner of the 4A North between Thomas Johnson and Linganore Saturday at Richard Montgomery at 5 p.m. Quince Orchard (13-2) avenged a 1-0 regular season loss to Whitman (10-5), but it certainly didn't come easy.
Each team had several quality scoring chance during regulation but the first overtime didn't provide much drama.
The second overtime had a completely different energy, as Lane Kurkjian knocked a shot off the crossbar in the first 30 seconds. The resulting goal kick sparked a Whitman run that looked as if would end the game. Whitman centered a ball to Lucy Arledge in the first minute of overtime. Arledge was 1-on-1 with Whitney but the goalie came careening out of the goal, slid and knocked the shot away.
"It was very frantic at times," Whitney said. "I'm sure everyone's adrenaline was rushing. It was crazy. ... I'm sure a lot of people thought that was the end of the game."
Think of Whitney's save as an assist. Only about a minute later, junior midfielder Yvonne Latour started a Quince Orchard push by stealing the ball in the Cougars' back third. Two passes later the ball was back on Latour's foot and she fed a through ball to Margelos, who was then 1-on-1 with a defender.
Margelos, a 5-foot-0 junior, made one juke to her left to get past the defender and struck the left-footed shot into the top left corner of the goal, sending the Quince Orchard girls screaming and streaming onto the field.
"I just tried to go by the defender and I did and I shot it in the left corner and we won," Margelos said. "We have heart and we keep pushing and pushing. We came out and tried to do our best and we won."
Quince Orchard's season began a bit shaky for a defending champion as the Cougars lost two games in their first six, with the latter being a 4-3 loss to Walter Johnson on Oct. 3.
The team was still trying to find its style of play without graduated midfielder Ariel Nehemiah, who scored 15 goals and added seven assists last year and now plays at the University of Maryland. What the Cougars have found is a handful of players who have banded together to bring the Cougars to the state tournament once again.
"There's no one person who's doing the bulk of the work load," Keiller said. "I don't think we have any girl on the team with more than three game-winning goals this year. It's different people every time. I think that's what's great for us and tough for others."
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