TCNJ AND KEAN TIE, BUT COUGARS ADVANCE ON PKs
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Ewing, NJ…Kean University converted on all three of its penalty kicks in the shootout to advance to the semifinals of the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament after the Cougars and The College of New Jersey battled to a 2-2 tie on Saturday.
Kean used a late goal in the final minutes of regulation and then teams then went through two overtime periods to finish in the deadlock. The Cougars, which shot second in the shootout, received goals from Julianne Natale (Clifton, NJ/Clifton), Amanda Repko (Hamilton, NJ/Notre Dame), and Angie Lopez (Rahway, NJ, Rahway, NJ), while keeper KC Nunez (Fair Lawn, NJ/Immaculate Heart Academy) made two saves and saw another Lion attempt got wide.
The sixth-seeded Cougars (10-5-3) move on to play at second-seeded Rowan University on October 31, while the 17th-ranked Lions (14-1-3) await the announcement of the field for the 2012 NCAA Division III Tournament.
These teams also tied during the regular season, only that time the game was 1-1.
The scoring started in the second half with the hosts getting off to a fast start with Katie Landrigan (Rutherford, NJ/Rutherford) knocking in a crossing pass from Katie Lindacher (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ/Egg Harbor Twp.) just 3:14 into the new frame.
Kean countered when Natale won the ball on a rebound and punched in her seventh goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 just over six minutes later.
The Landrigan and Lindacher combination put TCNJ back in front with 20:02 left in regulation with the players reversing roles this time. Landrigan sent a short cross to Lindacher as she buried her team-leading 12th goal of the season.
The Cougars tied the game in dramatic fashion as Carly Seidel (Winslow, Twp., NJ/Winslow Twp.) unleashed a shot from the far wing that went into the upper corner with just 1:37 left. That goal marked the first time this season TCNJ has allowed an opponent to score twice in the same game.
TCNJ almost made it a quick ending in overtime, but Nunez dove to her right and made a tremendous diving stop to her right robbing Lindacher of the game winner.
The teams then went through the remainder of the first extra session without scoring then repeated that for another overtime setting up the shootout.
In the opening period, Lion defender Jordan Downs (Brick, NJ/Brick) had two of the better chances in the opening frame with a pair of direct kicks that were each saved by Nunez.
TCNJ keeper Kendra Griffith (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill West) finished with six saves.
