By GARRETT CARR

Sun-Gazette Correspondent

MILTON — After allowing a goal she wished she had back in the late stages of regulation in Thursday night’s District 4 Class AA girls soccer quarterfinals, Warrior Run goalkeeper Chloe Burden knew that an upcoming penalty shootout would give her a perfect chance to redeem herself from a mistake earlier.

Burden did just that.

The senior made two clutch saves in the shootout to keep the Defender season alive, as Warrior Run beat Montoursville in a classic in penalty kicks, 3-2, after being tied 1-1 through two overtime periods.

“I prayed right beforehand. It’s just like a thing that goes through my head, right, left, right, left, and I just get a feeling that tells me if I’m right or wrong. And so a lot of times, I can read body language,” Burden said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just intuition or whatever that gives me it. I knew I made a mistake earlier in the game that ended up tying the game and I knew I had to fix it. The team has done so much the entire year to pull through for me, and it was just time for me to pull through for them.”

These two longtime District 4 soccer powers had played a scoreless tie earlier in the season and the feeling from both sides prior to kickoff was the margins would be small in the match, as well. But the game was turned upside down less than six minutes after the opening whistle.

Warrior Run’s Brooke Ryder collected the ball some 30 yards from goal and sent what looked to be a relatively harmless shot towards goal. But Montoursville keeper Abby Strassner misplayed the bounce, and the ball found the back of the net to give the Defenders an early 1-0 lead.

“We worked to get up. Everybody put their effort into it, and it was lucky, and I’m just really glad that we had a good start to the game,” Ryder said.

Just three minutes later, the Warriors had their best chance of the match, but a 1-v-1 with Burden was saved by a hard-charging Burden who was well off of her line.

Warrior Run controlled most of the action for much of the game, but were unable to break through for a crucial second goal. That meant that one bad bounce could tie the match up, and that’s exactly what happened.

With just over five minutes remaining in regulation, Warrior Run was called for a foul 35 yards from goal. Montoursville’s Kenna Bennett stepped up to take the free kick, and sent a shot towards goal that Burden didn’t quite get to in the air and hopped past her into the goal for the tying score Montoursville had worked well more than 60 minutes for.

Warrior Run’s most dominant stretch of play came in extra time, as the Defenders controlled the ball for nearly the entire thirty minutes and peppered Montoursville goalkeeper Abby Strassner with crosses and shots.

Strassner proved to be up to the challenge each and ever time, including in the final ten seconds of the second overtime when a long-range shot by the Defenders looked destined for the top part of the goal, only for Strassner to deflect it off the crossbar and out of harm’s way.

“We end up in a tie with Montoursville quite often, or a 1-0 game. So we knew it was going to be close all the way to the end,” Warrior Run coach Rob Ryder said. “We’ve been practicing penalties all week to try to prepare for this situation.”

Montoursville’s Kenna Bennett and Marlee Brainbridge and Warrior Run’s Callie Ulmer and Andie Bohart each scored the first two penalty attempts for each team. But on Montoursville’s third penalty attempt, Burden was all over it, keeping it out. Warrior Run’s third attempt would hit the left post, but Burden would once again make another save, reading the Montoursville player perfectly and easily moving to her right to save it.

Warrior Run’s Natalie Hall stepped up to take the fourth kick and calmly found the back of the net to put the Defenders on the doorstep of victory. When the final Montoursville kick missed wide left, Warrior Run had clinched a hard-fought win.

For Montoursville, it was a bitter end to a season that saw a young team show a lot of character to get to this point.

“You never know what’s going to happen going to PKs. You hope for the best,” Montoursville head coach Vic Gorini said. “We’re proud of our girls. They turned this season around. They were 3-6, fought their way back to 9-6, and this is their first loss in a month. And so, with a young team like we have, we were really proud of how they came back and fought so hard tonight.”

Warrior Run will play Central Columbia on Monday at a site and time to be announced.

Warrior Run 1 Montoursville 1 (2 OT)

(Warrior Run wins shootout, 3-2)

WR–Brooke Ryder (Scarlett Dunkleberger), 5:48. M–Kenna Bennett, 74:51.

Shots: WR 14, M 6. Saves: WR 4 (Chloe Burden), M 10 (Abby Strassner).