Cougars Left Stunned in Boys' Soccer Semifinal Loss

For the last month, the Cherry Hill East boys’ soccer team has been living on the edge, pulling out one-goal win after one-goal win.

The nail-biting games always had a way of working out in the Cougars' favor as they marched to a Coaches Cup championship and through to the NJSIAA South Jersey, Group 4 semifinals.

No. 13 East once again found itself in overtime Thursday afternoon, but this time felt sting of a grueling loss that eliminated it from the playoffs.

The winning goal came after a controversial call just outside the Cougars' 18-box set up a free kick for No. 1 Absegami. As East players were setting up their way, Absegami’s Sean Milligan quick-kicked a shot around the wall and into the corner of a net, six minutes, six seconds into overtime, giving the Braves a 2-1 victory and sending them to the Group 4 finals.

Absegami players mobbed each other in celebration, while Cherry Hill East players stormed to the officials in anger looking for answers.

Veteran head coach Karl Moehlmann, who coached the final game of his 24-year career, didn’t look for excuses after the loss.

“If you live on the edge like this, you win some games and you lose some games,” said Moehlmann. “Today, we lost because we didn’t score the second goal when we had the opportunities.”

Milligan's goal was set up when a penalty was called against an East defender for pulling down an Absegami forward.

Not everyone agreed with the call.

“The kid flopped and ref gave him the free kick,” said forward Zach Steinbock. “Then we thought that (Milligan) had asked the ref to make the defensive players in the wall move back 10-yards), so our goalie was out of position setting up the wall and (Milliagn) kicked it.

“It’s heartbreaking.”

Moehlmann said his more experienced players should have prevented the quick shot from happening.

“If the goalie doesn’t call for 10 yards then you can take the kick,” Moehlmann said. “You expect that one of your senior players are going to step on the ball until they get called back.”

Its looked like East's magical season would continue all the way to the South Jersey finals, as the Cougars led most of the game. Steinbock scored 12:40 into the game to give the Cougars a 1-0 advantage. Action went back and forth for the majority of the game, with each side having their fair share of possession and scoring opportunities. East goalie Stevan Oberlander was again solid, his best save coming with 13:30 left in regulation when he dove to his left to punch away a header by Absegami’s Rifici Giarfranco.

The Braves finally drew even with 10:20 left when Milligan found himself open off a long feed and was heading towards a one-on-one with Oberlander before he was taken down in the box. The officials awarded a penalty kick and Milligan converted to tie the game at 1-1.

Each team got off a couple shots in overtime before Milligan brought the game to its sudden conclusion.

“It’s difficult, but we had our chances and we didn’t take (advantage of them) this time,” said Moehlmann. “If we scored a second goal when we had the chance, the game is over. We let them back in and they got a couple of calls and free kicks. Give them credit, they made the best of what we gave them. Our offense didn’t live up to the chances we were given, and theirs did.”

East was hardly in the mood to reflect after the game, but in time the players will be able to have some fond memories of what has been a phenomenal month of soccer, including their Coaches Cup championship. Steinbock said once the hurt stops, the players should be proud of what they accomplished.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “This may be one of the worst losses off our life, but tomorrow we have to wake up and keep our chin up and know that we had a great season.”