BG controls Karns City in victory
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By Michael Boytim
mboytim@altoonamirror.com
KARNS CITY -- With the stress of three seasons of failure in the District 6 playoffs behind them, Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic may prove to be a tough out in the PIAA girls soccer playoffs.
The Lady Marauders began their state playoff run with a dominating 2-0 win over Karns City Tuesday in the first round of the PIAA Class 1A playoffs.
"It means a lot to the program, but I told the girls tonight that because of the pressure of losing three districts, tonight they should just play free and not worry about it," Bishop Guilfoyle coach Joe DeLeo said. "We achieved what we wanted to, of course we wanted to win tonight, but I felt like we came out a little looser, much more lose than last week where we were pretty tight to start that game."
Gone was the tension DeLeo saw not just last week in the district final that Bishop Guilfoyle finally came out on top in but it was a stress that has followed the team throughout the entire careers of the current senior class.
"We really settled it down and were calm," BG senior Sarah Geishauser said. "We didn't stress. I feel like that sometimes is a problem with us, but we kept our calm tonight. This means a lot. With so many district losses for our senior group, it means a lot to get this far."
The Lady Marauders will take on WPIAL champion Freedom in the PIAA quarterfinals on Saturday after Freedom knocked off District 10 runner-up Mercer, 3-1, on Tuesday.
Though the nerves didn't seem to get to the Bishop Guilfoyle players, they started to build up for DeLeo after his team missed several golden opportunities early in Tuesday's game, including a missed penalty kick by Nicole Hawk with 21:38 to play in the first half that Karns City keeper Savanna Prescott made a spectacular diving save on.
"Any time you have opportunities that you don't come through on, it makes you very nervous," DeLeo said. "In the first 15 minutes, we were dominating play, and to have no goals out of that was nerve-wracking for sure."
Just before Hawk's penalty kick, Geishauser helped bail her team out and avoid a 1-0 deficit. During a Karns City attack, BG keeper Cece Rumfola came out of the goal to stop the advance and collided with a Karns City player, and both went down. Geishauser got to the ball just before the Lady Gremlins got back into the play and to the ball and kicked it out of play.
Shortly after, Emma Marasco set up Hailey DeGol, but DeGol didn't make the best contact and the ball didn't have a lot of velocity when it reached Prescott. Somehow, the ball made it between her legs for a score.
"It was what I considered a relatively soft goal, but we put enough pressure on them that leads to things happening in your favor," DeLeo said. "We were lucky there."
Rumfola made a couple stops, including a header off a corner kick with 27:07 to play, before Marasco scored on an assist from Hawk to give Bishop Guilfoyle some breathing room with 16:38 left.
"They are very quick," Karns City coach Tracy Dailey said. "Even watching them on film didn't do them justice on the field. They are quick up top, and we didn't deal with that as well as we could have. Defensively, we knew it was going to be a battle. I think we battled. We had some opportunities that we didn't finish, but all in all it has been a great season for us."
With 2:59 left, some of the luster of BG's soon-to-be victory was lost when senior Rayna Columbo suffered what appeared to be a serious leg injury and had to be taken off the field on a golf cart.
Following the conclusion of the game, the Lady Marauders all circled around Columbo on the trainer's table to check on her.
Rumfola made nine saves, including a diving one with 30 seconds left to preserve the clean sheet.
"Our main goal was the district championship, and that made this a low-pressure game," Geishauser said. "It was so fun to play, and I'm happy we won."
SCORE BY HALVES
Bishop Guilfoyle 1 1 — 2
Karns City 0 0 — 0
First half: BG--DeGol (Marasco), 8:43.
Second half: BG--Marasco (Hawk), 16:38.
Records: Bishop Guilfoyle (19-1); Karns City (17-2-1)