Central Girls Win Class B South Championship

“Did you have to wait until the last two minutes to finally put one in the net?”

The chiding comment elicted laughter from the Central Regional girls soccer team.

“I’m sorry!” senior forward Samantha Jensen said, as the laughs continued. It was laughter borne of relief and joy all rolled into one, after the Central Regional girls soccer team captured at least a share of the Shore Conference Class B South with a 2-1 victory over Barnegat at Joseph J. Boyd Memorial Stadium on Tuesday night.

It is the first divisional championship for the girls soccer program in school history.

The Golden Eagles (9-1, 7-1) got two goals from Jensen and a strong defensive effort to beat the Bengals and avenge a loss from 10 days prior, when a flat Central team fell to Barnegat on the Bengals’ home field. Barnegat had lost to Brick on Oct. 7, giving Central the opportunity to win the division.

“They have worked hard all season,” head coach Kristee Paknis said. “This is when it pays off.”

As has been the case all season, however, there were some nail-biting moments. As they did in the first meeting between the teams, the Bengals (7-2-1, 6-2-1) scored early, when Lauren Spain hit a shot from about 20 yards out on the right side.

“That definitely made us a little bit nervous,” Jensen said. “But we were determined.”

That much was clear from the offensive pressure the Golden Eagles were putting on Barnegat. Central had a number of strong surges upfield in the first half. Lizzy Kroon had a pair of quality shots that just missed, as did Jensen and a couple of others. Barnegat keeper Steph Kostka turned away five shots in the first half.

“We were getting opportunities,” Jensen said. “We had to put them into the net.”

They finally did with 4:41 left in the half, when Jensen got free on a breakaway on a beautiful through ball from Amanda Carolan that the freshman touched just beyond the Barnegat defender. Jensen put her sprinter’s speed to work, collecting the ball and quickly outdistancing the defender and drilling the shot from about 8 yards out to tie the game with 4:41 left in the half.

In the second half, it was more of the same, with Central putting relentless pressure on Kostka. At times it looked much like the first meeting between the teams, with Central missing on solid chances to score as adrenaline took over.

Kostka didn’t back down, either, best exemplified by a duel in front of the net with Carolan. With the Barnegat defenders stopped because they had assumed the ball was going out of play, Carolan picked up a loose ball just off the endline and dribbled in toward the net, taking a hard shot that Kostka knocked down but couldn’t completely control. Carolan followed and tapped the ball away from Kostka, who scrambled to try to grab the ball. Carolan tapped it up on the air to keep it away from her, but Kostka refused to give up, and finally grabbed the ball out of the air before Carolan could get her foot on it again.

Central wasn’t backing down, either. The few times Barnegat got past midfield in the second half, Kristina Buhagiar, Megan Hubbard and Alexa DeRose turned the Bengals away. Central keeper Tianna Worden only handled the ball a handful of times and none of them were quality shots.

And it was a maneuver by Buhagiar, who has been a solid defensive presence all season, with about two minutes left that made the difference in the end.

Barnegat had finally gotten a ball through Central and into the Golden Eagles half on what looked to be a serious threat to take the lead. But Buhagiar came in and touched the ball away from the Barnegat forward and sent a clearing shot 40 yards upfield, where Jensen was again one-on-one with a defender. And as she’d done in the first half, Jensen put the ball in the back of the net.

And Barnegat never had another chance.

“We were so excited all day in school,” Jensen said. “This feels awesome.”

While the Shore Conference Tournament and the state playoffs await, Central’s focus is on its next game, tonight against Manchester. A victory will make the B South title belong to the Golden Eagles outright. But a loss will leave Central sharing the title with Barnegat.

Paknis, who had been unhappy with her team’s slow starts, believes that is in the past.

“We started warming up harder and they came out harder,” she said. “I knew it was in them. They just needed a push.”