GIRLS SOCCER: Owen J. Roberts beats Spring-Ford in PKs for PAC title again

BUCKTOWN — For a second straight season, Owen J. Roberts and Spring-Ford met in the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship game. For a second straight season, 100 minutes of play wasn’t enough to decide a winner.

And for a second straight season, the Wildcats won the shootout.

After two scoreless halves and two scoreless overtime periods, No. 3 Owen J. Roberts defeated No. 1 Spring-Ford, 5-4 in penalty kicks, Thursday night at Owen J. Roberts High School. It’s the Wildcats second straight PAC championship and 16th overall.

“It’s a great feeling again,” OJR goalkeeper Cheyenne Theakston, who was in net for last year’s 3-1 shootout win, said, “especially because we won the exact same way last year.”

The difference in the shootout was Theakston’s save to start the third round. The senior dove left to deny the shot and put her side in the driver’s seat.

“I was confident but I was also nervous because I know their goalie is really good,” Theakston said, “but I was like, ‘We got this.’ We had it last year, we got it again.”

Audrey Fleck netted the clinching goal at the end of the fifth round. She took four steps before taking her right-footed shot that found the top left corner to decide the championship.

“I thought I was going to miss at first,” the sophomore said. “I got really nervous. I just closed my eyes, pretended it was practice and then it went in.”

Fiona Sanders, Ashly White, Meryn Primanti and Abby Kalbach also scored for OJR during the shootout. Molly Kennedy, Riley Reavy, Olivia Neild and Erin Buckley converted for Spring-Ford.

“Second year in a row in terms of bringing them down to double overtime and PKs,” Spring-Ford coach Jeff Kushner said. “We just couldn’t muster enough to find a way to will one into the back of the net today.”

Both sides had opportunities to score during regulation.

Spring-Ford’s best chances came in the 31st and 72nd minutes. In the 31st, a corner kick bounced around in front of the net before Mya Hassan got a good look. Her shot bounced off the crossbar before being cleared by an OJR defender. It was another corner in the 72nd minute. Kennedy headed the ball towards the net and nearly scored. Theakston, Kalbach, Primanti and White were all on the ground along the goal line for OJR to keep the ball out.

“(OJR’s) a good squad and they’re coached well,” Kushner said, “in terms of finding ways to put us in uncomfortable situations. Creating chances is one thing, finding ways to finish them is another. I think at times we were fighting ourselves a little bit. Once we found a way to stop kicking our own butt, we had to find a way to start going after them a little bit more. Maybe we could have been a little more aggressive in a couple instances in the attacking third, but they’re a good squad and coached well. Defensively they were able to weather the storm at times.”

OJR’s best scoring chance came in the 51st minute. Fleck put a strong shot on goal, but Spring-Ford goalkeeper Neild made a diving stop. On the ensuing corner kick, the Wildcats got two chances when the ball bounced back to the corner. Primanti got her head on the initial cross and her foot on the second entry pass, but S-F had defenders in position both times.

The two rivals will be competing in the District 1-4A playoffs, which start Tuesday, Oct. 22. Spring-Ford is currently the No. 5 seed while Owen J. Roberts is No. 10.

“This gave us a lot of confidence,” Fleck said, “but not too much confidence. I feel really good for districts.”

“For us it’s a mentality that we’ve been going with for a while now,” Kushner said. “The next game is the most important game. We’ll recover and mend a little bit here for the next 48, 72 hours and then focus on whoever we see next week.”

Owen J. Roberts 0, Spring-Ford 0 (5-4 PKs)

Owen J. Roberts 0 0 0 0 (5) – 0

Spring-Ford 0 0 0 0 (4) – 0