DOYLESTOWN — Central Bucks West waited 346 days to avenge last year’s state semifinal loss to Conestoga. What’s another 10 minutes?
The third-seeded Bucks hosted the sixth-seeded Pioneers in the District 1-3A quarterfinals Friday night at War Memorial Field. After 60 minutes of play, there was nothing separating the teams on the scoreboard.
Late in the first overtime session, Zola Morelli scored to give CB West a 4-3 win that sends the team to the district semifinals and secured its spot in the state playoffs.
“Finding out that we were going to play Conestoga, it was awesome,” CB West captain Aida Ierubino said. “We wanted to avenge ourselves from last year, especially in a high-stakes game like this. Qualify for states if we win and go to the semifinals if we win. It was super exciting.”
The game-winning sequence started with Laney Hall and Heidi Schoenleber working together to make a stop of the defensive end. Schoenleber came away with possession and passed across midfield to Ierubino. Ierubino received the ball and immediately got fouled. She restarted quickly and passed ahead to Morelli, who was behind the defense and 1-on-1 with the goalie. From the right side of the cage, Morelli placed her right-handed shot perfectly, just inside the left post, to start the CB West celebration.
“I looked up and Zola was running down the field,” Ierubino said. “I know if she gets the ball, she is not letting anyone touch it or get the ball off her stick. She made a perfect lead, I played it to her and when she got the ball I kind of knew it was the end. She’s a great player, you can always trust her. She’s a strong, really team-oriented person.”
“I’m really proud,” Conestoga coach Regan Marscher said. “As the score indicated, I felt sometimes like we were watching ourselves. They’r just so similar, the team’s really tough and excellent skills. It just came down to it going their way tonight. I felt like it was really pretty evenly matched and I’m just really proud of my kids for the fight. It’s been a while since we’ve had a game quite that close, so it’s great prep and I’m really happy that we’re not finished and happy to head into playbacks.”
Ierubino had a big night on the offensive end, scoring West’s three goals in regulation and assisting the overtime game-winner. After getting shutout by Conestoga, 2-0, in last year’s state semifinal, Ierubino got the Bucks on the board just 71 seconds into the rematch. She carried the ball around the edge of the circle before crushing a strong shot from the right wing that went straight into the cage.
The early lead only lasted about three minutes. The Pioneers (15-4) earned a penalty corner and some impressive passing and a strong shot evened the score. Peyton Esposito inserted the corner to Aubrey DelOrefice, who dished it left to Brynn Wozniak. She gave it back to DelOrefice, who stick-handled around a defender before putting a reverse hit right into the cage.
Four minutes later, Emily Todd scored courtesy of a nice pass from Kate Bruder to put Conestoga in front, 2-1.
Conestoga’s narrow advantage stood for 18:27 of gametime. Late in the second quarter, Morelli inserted a corner to Claire Demmer at the top of the circle. She passed left to Ierubino, who took one touch before ripping a slap shot just inside the right post, tying the game, 2-2, before the half.
After a scoreless third quarter that was controlled by CB West – putting four shots on the cage to Conestoga’s zero and earning three penalty corners to Conestoga’s zero – Conestoga came out strong to start the fourth. Wozniak scored on an assist from Lauren Lofgren to give the Pioneers a 3-2 lead with 10:52 remaining.
“We just talked about digging deep,” Marscher said of the message heading into the fourth quarter. “We never get those moments back. We just tried to gut it out. Obviously it’s super physically draining, but I’m really proud.”
The one-goal difference lasted 100 seconds. Ierubino carried the ball from midfield into the circle, but lost it when she was met by a couple defenders. She quickly regained possession and, from a sharp angle to the right of the cage, found a way to score and tie the game, 3-3.
Both teams had opportunities to end things in overtime before Morelli caged the game-winner. Conestoga earned a pair of corners and CB West earned one, but both defenses were able to clear the ball out of the circle before a shot could be put on target.
CB West will host No. 7 Downingtown West, a 2-1 winner over No. 2 Avon Grove, in the semifinals Tuesday.
Conestoga heads to the playback bracket, where it will have two chances to earn a spot in the state playoffs. The first chance is Tuesday on the road against Avon Grove.
“We talk a lot about mental toughness and resilience in our program,” Marscher, who’s team lost the district final last year before winning the state championship, said. “I know my girls are going to be down. That last shot was so perfect, so not much our goalie can do about that. We learn and grow and move forward. I’m excited to see where CB West goes, too, because I think they have a shot of winning the championship.”
CB West 4, Conestoga 3 (OT)
Conestoga 2 0 0 1 0 – 3
CB West 1 1 0 1 1 – 4
Goals: C: Aubrey DelOrefice, Emily Todd, Brynn Wozniak. CBE: Aida Ierubino 3, Zola Morelli.
Source: Berkshire mont
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