South Jersey soccer playoffs

Both Schalick teams advance with one-goal wins, boys get theirs with 8 seconds left in regulation

PITTSGROVE – Talk about cutting it close.

Schalick’s South Jersey Group 1 boys soccer quarterfinal match against Riverside appeared headed for overtime Saturday. The Cougars came from two goals down midway through the second half to tie the match, then just when it looked like it would end that way, Tyler Vanlier finished off a cross from Josh Stecher with eight seconds left in regulation to give them a 3-2 victory.

The Cougars (15-4) now host county and Diamond Division rival Woodstown (12-7-1) in Wednesday’s semifinals. They teams last faced each other in the tournament in the 2015 quarterfinals (a Schalick shutout)

Riverside (8-10-2) led 1-0 at halftime and scored its second goal in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Jake Sepers drew the Cougars even with two free kick goals from just inside midfield. On the game winner Stecher was out on the left side and sent a ball into the middle. Vanlier got to it first and in a little scrum in front poked it past the keeper for an emotional finish.

It was the Cougars’ sixth straight win.

“I thought we responded real well,” Schalick coach Joe Mannella said. “We were putting decent pressure on, but really still not quite getting it. When they went down 2-0 you saw a huge increase in urgency and we were really peppering them. Once we got the first one you could kind of feel it building. We felt like it was a matter of time. I’m glad that we were able to do it.”

Mannella can remember winning games with overtime golden goals, but couldn’t recall ever winning a game with as little time left in regulation. Schalick girls coach Will Kemp reminded him in 2007, Kemp’s senior year, the Cougars went to No. 1-seed Salem and fell behind 2-0 before rallying to win 3-2 in regulation.

“I felt we were going to win it in regulation,” Mannella said. “I remember peeking back at the clock when Josh got the ball and there were like 13 or 15 seconds (left). Not that we were definitely going to score there, but the whole second half I felt we were going to pull it out. And we did.”

Schalick girls show character, grit

PITTSGROVE – The Schalick girls soccer team fell behind early against a team that has notoriously given it fits, but instead of covering under the weight of an early deficit it lit a fire under the Cougars.

They got even before halftime, then Kyleigh Cutler gave them the lead in the first 10 minutes of the second half and the defense did the rest, leading the Cougars to a 2-1 victory over Audubon Saturday. They now travel to top-seeded Haddon Twp. for the South Jersey Group 1 semifinals Tuesday.

“The girls actually raised their level once they went down,” Cougars coach Will Kemp said. “We were controlling the game before, that (goal) was Audubon’s first chance the entire match, and then the girls really just turned it on. Took chances, capitalized on opportunities, really controlled the game and then slowed down their momentum.”

The win was Schalick’s third in a row and ended three years of frustration at the hands of the Green Wave. Last year, the Cougars lost in the sectional semifinals in a PK shootout. The year before they were crushed in the regular season 5-0. In 2023, they lost to them in the sectional final.

The Green Wave scored their goal off a corner kick, but Kemp said there was “no rush, no panic” on the part of his players after the score and they scored the next chance they got. Cecilee Bell got the equalizer on a goal Kemp said “could have been one of our goals of the season,” a left-foot one-timer from outside the box that bent away from the keeper and changed the momentum in Schalick’s favor.

Cutler’s go-ahead goal, her tenth goal of the season, was a scrappy goal in the box about 10 minutes into the second half. She put herself in the right position to make a play, dribbled past two defenders and put it in the bottom corner. Audubon hit the crossbar with a header in the second half, but beyond that didn’t have many other chances.

“A lot of people would’ve put their heads down, a lot of players would have put their heads down, but the girls really showed their character,” Kemp said. “The girls were really determined in the way they wanted to go ahead and move forward and get over this hump that we’ve been trying to for the last several seasons. It just shows their character and their grit and their ability to be able to finish out a game.”