This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Late Goal Knocks Off Lady Hawks

Inability to finish and a late score by Pascack Valley results in home loss for River Dell

ORADELL—The chances were there, but the Lady Hawks were just unable to finish.

“We did very well in the first 10 minutes of the first half,” head coach Steve Grenz said, “and the last 10 minutes of the second half.”

River Dell (2-2) owned possession, controlled the ball well through the midfield and attacked, but came up empty each time.

Find out what's happening in River Dellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Grenz wasn’t thrilled with the team’s shot selection.

“In the last 18,” Grenz said, “the shots were from a distance or weren’t from the right spot.

Find out what's happening in River Dellwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“We just didn’t have the extra girls coming up,” he added. “We’ve worked on this stuff [in practice] and when we get in a game, sometimes we forget. We’re a young team still.”

Seton-Hall bound Frankie Maier summed it up best: “It just came down to that one mistake in the back.”

The mistake she spoke of was a defensive lapse by River Dell that allowed Pascack Valley midfielder Alex McManus to get off a quick shot in the 78th minute.

McManus went top right corner—the “postage stamp”—over a leaping Toni McAndrews, the Lady Hawk’s keeper, giving the Indians the 1-0 win.

“We made mistakes,” Grenz said, “and they finished.”

Pascack Valley (4-1-1) could have gotten on the board earlier in the 17th minute and again in the 25th minute.

Sara Petro delivered a free kick from the right sideline that appeared to be going into goal but just clanged off the bar and back into the penalty area. The ball ended up finding some bodies, but the River Dell defense cleared it away.

Eight minutes later, sophomore striker Rachel Kearney beat her mark and had McAndrews one-on-one.

But Kearney put too much on it and the ball sailed over the bar and through the uprights behind the goal.

Payton Wagmeister showed her strength on throw-ins and facilitated the River Dell attack by getting the ball forward. Maier was able to win balls and performed well in set pieces, as she delivered six of the Lady Hawk’s seven corner kicks.

Early on, she delivered a nice cross to Brigid Tracy, but the latter’s shot was just off target.

In the 45th minute, off of a corner, Maier sent a ball directly to Tracy again, but Tracy’s headed effort went just wide of the post.

Maier also rifled a shot in the 65th minute at goal, but PV keeper Ilexa Halperin was able to come up with the save.

Kayla and Emily McGovern provided stead play in the River Dell midfield as well.

“It was a good game,” Grenz said. “Pascack Valley played hard.”

The Lady Hawks will take on rival Tenafly on Saturday.

“We’re a good team,” said defender Emily Dominguez. “We need to work on playing a full 80 minute game, rather than play well in spurts.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?