Garden City, N.Y. — Northeast-10 major award winners Head Coach Brooke DeRosa, forward Kayleigh Goodrich and the No. 1 seeded Adelphi University women's soccer team hosted No. 4 Bentley on Thursday night in the semifinal round of the conference championship.
The Panthers started the game off hot firing off five shots in the first fifteen minutes, which set the tempo for the rest of the game. Bentley responded with some shots of its own but like its counterpart, could not find the back of the net as the teams went into the break scoreless.
Early in the second half, Goodrich came out firing with three shots in less than five minutes. The Panther attack was in full force as an onslaught of seven shots came between the 56th and 68th minutes. Unfortunately for Adelphi, none of these attempts would be fruitful as they either just sailed wide or were saved by the Falcon keeper.
The Bentley defense stood tall for the remainder of the period as No. 1 seed and No. 4 seed would head into overtime.
Adelphi continued to bring the pressure in the extra minutes but the gassed Falcons had completely parked the bus. Every time Goodrich, Madison Apicella or Gia Mandile handled the ball they were completely swarmed by Falcons and the game headed into penalty shootout.
Up first was Apicella for the Panthers. The three-time All-Conference selection shot hard and to the right but it was stopped by the Bentley keeper. Bentley converted on its next kicker and the Panthers were quickly chasing in the shootout.
Lola Kochanskyj drilled her penalty to keep the Falcons at bay but Bentley converted as well.
The third round was when the tide turned. Carly Issing scored her chance and on Bentley's turn reserve keeper Alba López Martínez, who was subbed in for the shootout, made a sprawling save to her right. Motamed Field was buzzing and Adelphi gained a quick advantage.
Freshman Reeghan McCarthy came up for the biggest kick of her young career and absolutely buried it to give the Panthers an edge. Nerves got to the Bentley goalkeeper, who took the next kick, as her try sailed over the bar.
For what ultimately was the final kick of the game, López Martínez stepped up to the ball and fired it to the left of the net, fooling the keeper as Adelphi won the shootout, 4-2.
The kick put the Panthers into their third consecutive NE10 title game. They will host No. 2 Franklin Pierce on Sunday at 1 p.m.
