Girls Soccer: Mt. St. Charles -Tiverton Quarterfinal Game Suspended

Eighty minutes and nothing to show for it. Yet.

girls' soccer team battled Tiverton High to a 0-0 deadlock Monday afternoon at home in a quarterfinal-round match of the Division II state playoffs.  The game was called just before overtime as darkness began to set in.

The squads will return to Woonsocket on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for two 10-minute overtime periods. If the fourth-seeded Mounties (13-4-1) and fifth-seeded Tigers (11-5-2) are tied at the conclusion of those sessions, the victor will be determined in a shootout (presumably before darkness falls again.)

Tuesday’s survivor will earn a respite only until Thursday when it will journey to East Greenwich High to face top-seeded Exeter-West Greenwich Regional High (19-0-0) in a semifinal-round contest. The Scarlet Knights eliminated eighth-seeded Westerly High, 4-0, Monday in a quarterfinal-round pairing.

On Monday, Mt. St. Charles and Tiverton both heavily relied on stellar defensive play and solid goaltending to forge their scoreless stalemate in an action-packed encounter which featured numerous good scoring opportunities, but precious few serious scoring threats. Mountie keeper Marie Ryan stopped 8 shots, while Tiger netminder Haley Higginbottom was more severely tested and forced to make 16 saves.

In a back-and-forth match, MSC had the upper hand for most of the afternoon before Tiverton dominated much of the closing 15 minutes of action, but neither squad managed to find the back of the net.

“We dominated most of the game, but we just couldn’t finish up,” said Mountie Coach Marek Wolny. “We struggled a little bit today. Our shots were a little off and Tiverton played very well against us.”

“The last 20 minutes or so, I thought we played very well and just missed scoring a few times,” said Tiger Coach Joe Gill. “In the first half, we didn’t play well, but I think we carried the action in the second half.”

Daylight ran out Monday when Tiverton forward Mackenzie Mello suffered a back injury with approximately 13 minutes to play in regulation time and required about 15 precious minutes of medical attention on the field. Mello eventually walked off the field under her own power, but the lost light jeopardized continuation of the match.

The two game officials originally decided to start the first of two extra periods – with the caveat that the contest may have been halted because of darkness at any time – but Wolny and Gill convinced them to suspend the match until Tuesday.

“I’m glad we did it this way,” Wolny said. “It’s fair to both teams. I don’t think it would be fair if we didn’t get the full 10 and 10 (overtime periods).”

“I didn’t want to play say 15 minutes and then have the officials decide it was too dark to play,” Gill said. “Unfortunately, if Mackenzie hadn’t been injured, we probably would have been able to get it in.”

As it was, the contest more than compensated for its absence of scoring with plenty of action, excitement and emotion. The Mounties kept the Tigers pinned in their defensive zone for a huge chunk of the opening period, but Higginbottom turned aside shots by Danielle Deschene, Rita Donohoe, Caitlin Shea, Allison Shea and Brianna Whitney, while Ryan thwarted bids by Olivia Bergandy (including one at the goal mouth) and Jackie Wilson.

Higginbottom rejected tries in the second half by Deschene, Allison Shea (a leaping save,) Caitlin Shea, Jackie DiChristofero, Dorothea Moniz and Cassandra Roberge, and caught a break on another occasion when Caitlin Shea’s tough-angle shot from right of the net cleared Higginbottom, but struck the crossbar and bounced away. Later in the chapter, Ryan came up big on efforts from Samantha Welchman, Bergandy, Erica Farias and Sarah Mauricio.

Spearheading MSC’s defense were Roberge, DiChristofero, Taylor Messier and Cassandra Roberge, while Tiverton’s stopper unit received exemplary performances from Erin Rodrigues, Maya Bergandy, Rachel Mauricio and Jackie Wilson.

Download the movie