McEnough's Late Goal Delivers Third Straight National Title for Brookdale Women's Soccer

Photo above: Happy Brookdale players hold up trophy after winning third straight national title. Photo by: Tom Smith

TOMS RIVER – Sophomore forward Simone McEnough’s header off a perfectly placed corner kick by freshman Amanda Karabin with just under eight minutes remaining in a scoreless duel was all Brookdale needed, as the Jersey Blues beat Oxford-Emory (Ga.) 1-0 for their record-breaking third straight NJCAA DIII national championship, Sunday at Ocean County College.

With the win, the girls’ soccer team became the first program in Brookdale history to win three straight national titles, while at the same time rewriting the NJCAA DIII women’s soccer record books as the first team ever to win three straight national championships.

In a move that will forever go down in Brookdale athletic lore, head coach Katie Miller substituted McEnough into the lineup immediately after the corner kick was called, and the rest is history.

“I had a gut feeling,” Miller said. “Simone has always been a player who has gone out for corners and she has finished before. It kind of just worked itself out by where the ball went out of bounds and for me being able to bring her in. With the way she looked on the sideline, with her legs were moving, I just had a feeling.”

Having a feeling is one thing but executing is another, and Brookdale could not have executed on the play any more perfect. Karabin’s cross off the corner was on target finding McEnough in perfect position just behind the penalty kick line before putting a solid head on the ball that froze the goalie before beating her to her right for the game-winner.

McEnough was a valuable piece of the 2013 championship team before taking a year off then rejoining the team this fall, and her big-game experience definitely paid off.

“She (Miller) just said, ‘Simone go in there and do what you got to do,’ and that’s what I did,” McEnough said. “I just saw Amanda’s ball in the air and I knew I needed to get the goal in so I went for it; it was my lucky head band. Our motivation was to win today and make history.”

It was back-to-back titles for Brookdale sophomore midfielder Ashley Cafarella, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after scoring two goals and assisting on another for five points in three tournament games.

“Oh my God, it’s unreal,” Cafarella said. “We just all clicked together and put it together at the right time. There was a lot of pressure to live up to, but we didn’t even think about it, we just played Brookdale soccer. Katie is the greatest coach I’ve ever had in my life. You don’t just win back-to-back-to-back championships and there are no words to describe how good she is. Katie knows exactly what to do and when to do it; there are no coincidences.”

Second-seeded Brookdale began its tournament run with a 1-0 double-overtime win over No.7-seed Suffolk County in the quarterfinals before taking down No.3-seed SUNY Broome (N.Y.) 3-0 in the semifinals. The Jersey Blues finished with 19 wins against one loss for the season while Emory-Oxford absorbed their first loss to the season falling to 18-1-1.

Brookdale sophomore goalkeeper Marti Stewart was named tournament Most Valuable Defensive Player after posting three shutouts in the tournament and turning away all three of the Eagles shots on goal in the final.

It was Brookdale’s 14th shutout of the season as Marti and her backfield mates including Alexandria Montefinese, Meredith Parleman, Michelle Montefinese and Colleen Branagan again proved to be an impenetrable defensive unit in the final.

McEnough was selected as the tournament’s Most Valuable Offensive Player joining Cafarella, Stewart and freshman forward Heather Arbachesky on the all-tournament team.

The top coaching honor in the tournament went to Miller after completing the unprecedented three-peat in national championship games.

“Oxfords defense was physical and fast,” Miller said. “But they were no match for Aubrey (Jones), Heather and Simone. They were playing a defensive game against us the entire time but we figured out how we had to play through them and we felt it was just a matter of time until we scored. This feels amazing. I feel completely blessed, I’m humbled and this is a result of hard work, teamwork and determination. These girls made a commitment from August, they stuck with it and stuck with each other and I couldn’t be more pleased with our end result.”

Brookdale will now most definitely finish No.1 in the final NJCAA DIII national rankings after entering the tournament in the No.2 spot behind Herkimer - a 1-0 loser to Oxford-Emory in the semifinals.

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