Forbush’s Skylar Southern and Brevard’s Caroline Ramsey tussle for possession late in the second half of Monday night’s playoff match.
EAST BEND — After almost 110 minutes of play Monday night, it seemed penalty kicks were going to be imminent to determine a winner in the girls soccer playoff between Forbush and Brevard.
But the Lady Blue Devils changed that when Rylee Murray scored the golden goal with seven seconds to play in overtime to give visiting Brevard a 1-0 win in the first round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A playoffs.
The playoff win was the first for the Lady Blue Devils since 2013 and the 13 wins so far this spring — their first double-digit win season in a decade — comes after they won just one match last year.
“We lost a couple in the last three or four minutes of matches, so it was a nice feeling to be on the other side. It’s their first playoff win for Brevard in a long, long time, so the girls are really happy,” said Brevard head coach Craig Long. “We’re trying to rebuild our program so this is a big win for us.
“They didn’t want to go to PKs and they said that there right before the last overtime,” added Long. “That just shows the fight — they took it down there to the end, so I’m very pleased, very proud of them.”
Murray’s goal came in the match’s final minute of the second five-minute overtime session, which was preceded by 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes.
Meleah Foster, who assisted on the play, threw a deep ball near the Lady Blue Devil goal; after several near misses in close, the junior Murray put the golden goal home as she was mobbed by her Brevard teammates right after. It was her only shot of the match.
“Sometimes in a game like this, it only takes one goal and tonight, we just couldn’t get it,” Forbush Head Coach David Marcincavage said. “We tried different formations, we tried certain things and we just couldn’t string anything together.”
Prior to Murray’s winner, the Lady Falcons were dealt a blow when Skyler Southern was assessed her second yellow card of the match in the 104th minute.
Because if was the sophomores’ second yellow (she received her first in the 49th) , it automatically became a red card, which meant Southern was disqualified and Forbush (12-7) would be forced to play the remainder of the match with only 10 players.
“Going down a player hurt, but it seemed as though both teams played really hard,” said Marcincavage. “Brevard was excellent defensively — they’re big, they played the ball long and we just couldn’t break them down and we just couldn’t find a way to get through them.”
Despite being short-handed, the Lady Falcons still had plenty of opportunities, none bigger than a pair of looks in the final two minutes of the final overtime.
Emma Cheek had an attempt go just off the mark, but Sarah Owens had the closest miss of the night when her shot attempt narrowly went past the left post in the 109th minute.
The Lady Falcons held a 30-16 advantage in shots and a 10-2 edge in corner kicks.
“We created some chances. I think we had twice as many shots as they did and when you get 30 shots on goal, you’ve got to be able to score one of them, or a couple of them,” said Marcincavage. “I think we had ten corner kicks that we couldn’t do anything with either, so I just chalk it up to that it just wasn’t our night and sometimes the better team doesn’t always win.”
Abby Hauter finished with 15 saves but was big in maintaining the clean sheet. The freshman keeper came up big late in regulation when Southern had a breakaway; she put a hard shot on goal, but Hauter was there to make the save.
The Lady Blue Devils will travel to Community School of Davidson on Thursday evening.
“We don’t have any seniors one our team, we have three freshmen start,” said Long. “Abby has really come on and she’s a big part of that really good, young talent, so that looks good for next year.”
Forbush goalkeeper Zayley St. John finished with 10 saves.
