Junior Zoe Rockas pulls away.
Rye High Girls’ Soccer
Garnets Net Three in OT to Take Down Harrison
By Mitch Silver
A determined Harrison girls’ soccer team strode onto the pitch at Nugent Stadium Wednesday afternoon determined to topple the home side from the ranks of the unbeaten. Coach Rich Savage’s Garnets, in turn, assumed they would add their archrivals to their tally of victims, which totaled six as play began. That seventh win proved a hard one to come by.
For one thing, the visitors packed their defense, allowing Rye to control most of the play on the wings but smothering everything in front of the net. For another, in the first half the Garnets completed more passes to Harrison than Harrison completed to Harrison. The result? The Huskies had precisely one shot on goal while the Garnets had two when the halftime whistle blew.
“We were putting the ball in the air too much,” Coach Savage said afterwards. “That’s not our game.”
Sure enough, Rye kept the spheroid on the ground throughout the second forty minutes, sending through balls from midfield to their speedsters out wide, especially junior Meredith Tutun. Tutun would find herself with the ball at her feet inside the penalty box, with only the keeper to beat, three or four times late in the game. But nothing went in, and the 0-0 game went to two ten-minute periods to decide the matter.
Overtime was a different story. With Harrison’s defense wilting, sophomore striker Annabelle Thomas bulled her way through the middle with a little over three minutes gone. Her shot beat the goalie low to her right side.
Once the dam broke, it was all Rye. The home team camped out in front of the Huskies’ net, sending five more shots Harrison’s Hailey Amman before senior Mia McGinty broke through with a penalty kick at the 2:16 mark. Then, with seconds left in the first OT, Tutun got the goal that had been denied her for an hour and a half. Grace Wykoff and Katie Sack each had an assist for the Garnets.
The second overtime period saw Harrison try to get back in the game, but their legs didn’t have the energy to worry Rye’s outstanding senior goalkeeper, Olivia Dabinett.
Rye would wind up taking 15 shots for the game, most of them after regulation had ended.
A few days earlier, Rye achieved a modicum of revenge against John Jay-Cross River, the team that beat the Garnets in a last-second heartbreaker of a Sectional semifinal a year ago. Saturday saw Rye emerge with a convincing 4-1 victory. McGinty, Zoe Rockus, Claudia Rafa, and Reilly Traynor each scored second-half goals in the win. Katie Sack added two assists, while Tutun and Eve Dalton had one apiece.
The Garnet & Black hosts Mahopac Saturday, September 21, at five p.m. Then Eastchester comes in Tuesday afternoon. Same time, same place.