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Six second-half goals lifts South to playoff-clinching victory vs. Montgomery

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

MONTGOMERY -- The first 40 minutes on Wednesday at Montgomery had the makings of a thrilling matchup unfolding. Neither team had scored and shots were at a minimum early on.

And early in the second half, it was playing out the same way. But then one quick goal from South Williamsport seemingly shifted everything. One goal turned to two, two ballooned into four and the Mounties never took their foot off the gas.

That resulted in a 6-0 win on Wednesday afternoon for South Williamsport in a Mid-Penn battle against Montgomery to give South Williamsport their seventh win of the year. And more importantly, qualify for the District 4 playoffs.

"It was a huge game for us because we had to win one of our last four to make the playoffs, and now we have. Now we qualified, we'll be .500. We talked a little bit about that," South Williamsport coach Marc Lovecchio said. "We talked a little bit about playing up back throughs, give-and-go's, hitting it into space."

In the span of 23 minutes in the second half, South Williamsport continuously got pressure in Montgomery's third and put up goals left and right. 

Carly Quimby scored with 28:44 to play when she got inside the far-right side of the 18 and took a high shot to the left post. Nine minutes later, Kloey Persun scored when she got inside of the 18, took a shot slightly to the right and placed it high, just out of the reach of Montgomery keeper Addison Gregor for a 2-0 lead.

"Honestly, I think we have struggled lately with feeling defeated over one goal. We've had a lot of close goals this season and we haven't really ever come back from a deficit," Montgomery coach Hannah Summerson said. "So, I think trying to change our mentality of we can come back when we're down and not getting so worked up about simple mistakes that we can pivot from and move forward."

Persun scored her second goal with 14:55 left for a 3-0 lead. 

The Mounties then put in two goals in quick succession. Italia Mangiardi scored with 11:10 when she got into the 18 and had a 1-v-1 look from 6 yards out and buried a shot to the left. Just 18 seconds later, Coco Kline got in and scored for a fast outburst to make it a 5-0 lead.

The Mounties' final goal came with 5:15 remaining.

"She's a great leader. She's a great distributor," Lovecchio said of Persun, who had a hat trick in the playoff-clinching win. "She's very good at controlling the ball, switching fields. She picks her head up. She can shoot the ball when she needs to. We all have to improve certain ways, but she's great to build around."

The first 10 minutes of the second half, Montgomery came out very aggressive and possessed well. That 10-minute period gave Montgomery a number of chances to try to score and take a quick lead, but South Williamsport weathered it and didn't allow the Red Raiders to put in a shot.

"I felt that we had a good talk at halftime and the girls really understood what they needed to do to get a goal on this team. They do have a really solid formation and their coach is super good at playing to certain team's weaknesses," Summerson said. "So, I think we had a good plan of attack, we just couldn't execute unfortunately. When it shifted, the momentum was down and it's really hard to get back up."

"The first 10 minutes of the second half, they kind of gave it to us," Lovecchio said. "They have some talented players who can really control the ball. I thought the last third of the game we were outstanding."

With 28 minutes left in the first half, Montgomery's Brijit Rupert got into the 18 and a mishandled loose ball was at her feet in front of the goal. Rupert got a foot on it, but South Williamsport had a defender in the right spot at the right time to deflect the shot instead of allowing an open-net goal.

That was one of Montgomery's best chances to put in a goal in the first half. South Williamsport nearly scored with 11:22 until halftime as Quimby got 10 yards out on the right side of the field and sent a high shot to her left. The shot was well-placed, but came just a little too high as it ricocheted off the crossbar.

Summerson noted that when the Mounties got the first goal to take a 1-0 lead, it deflated the girls a bit and shifted momentum big time for South Williamsport.

"I think that's what really hurt us this game is once we made that one mistake, it was in our head and they were coming at us harder," Summerson said. "It was both of those things working against us in the second half. I thought we looked better coming out, so it was really disappointing to see that goal shift everything."

While Montgomery had possession and came out aggressive in the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Red Raiders only had one shot on goal to show for it when Aubrey Staggert fired a shot from 20 yards out to the left-near post which was blocked.

South Williamsport held a 17-3 shots-on-goal advantage against Montgomery and routinely got inside of the 18 to fire shots at Gregor in goal. Gregor did come up with nine saves, however, and kept the score from getting even more out of hand.

In total, South rifled 25 shots to Montgomery's three total.

South Williamsport 6, Montgomery 0

SW--Carly Quimby, 28:44. S--Kloey Persun, 19:57. SW--Persun, 14:55. SW--Italia Mangiardi, 11:10. SW--Coco Kline, 10:52. SW--Persun, 5:15.

Shots: SW 17, M 3. Corners: SW 4, M 1. Saves: SW 3 (Annika Harding), M 9 (Addison Gregor).

Records: South Williamsport (7-4-4), Montgomery (9-7-2).

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