Ursuline Defeats St. Joe's In District Championship Game

Ursuline Academy goalkeeper Mallory Yant had an idea of what to expect when St. Joseph's Academy's Brittney Kuster tried a sudden death penalty kick in the championship game of the Class 3 District 3 Soccer Tournament Thursday at Nerinx Hall.

Yant and  Kuster are teammates on the J. B. Marine select team.

"I knew she had a powerful shot to my right and I just went for it," Yant said. "I had gotten my hands on three of the previous kicks that went in so this one felt great."

Yant's save set the drama for Andrea Strebler who calmly put in the shot that continued the Bears' 2011 season and ended the one for St. Joe's.

"I told the girls before the game that I didn't care if they won or lost as long as they left everything on the field and they certainly did that today," Angels coach Maureen McVey said. "It was a great game between two great teams. Somebody had to lose and too bad it was us."

The game was scoreless at halftime but Ursuline, which had lost to St. Joe's 5-2 in the regular season, scored the game's first two goals. Molly Huber centered a ball that was deflected in off an Angel defender five minutes into the second half.

Huber then hit the post with a free kick with 24:30 to play. Bridget Brotherton was able to put it in a wide open net and the Bears seemed in control.

"I think we couldn't believe that we were ahead 2-0 against such a fantastic team like St. Joe's," Ursuline coach Ashlee Slayback said. "We lost focus for a while."

And that was all it took for the Angels to get even. Caroline Branch headed in a pass from a free kick by Kuster less than three minutes after Brotherton's goal.

The Angels would tie it with 11 minutes left on a goal by Abbey Stock on a pass from Allie Magaletta.

The teams played through two 15-minute sudden death overtime periods. Ursuline had the best chance in the final minute of the first overtime but Angel goalkeeper Melissa Powers stopped Casey Chalupny from point blank range.

The district title would be decided by penalty kicks. Both teams scored four of its five tries as Lauren Flynn, Stock, Tori Magaletta and Caroline Brandt scored for the Angels while Maddie Friedmann, Brotherton, Huber and Chalupny tallied for the Bears.

It came down to sudden death PK's and Yant made the save on Kuster and Strebler sent the Bears on.

"The third time proved to be our charm," Yant said. "This is the third time we have played them in the last two years. We lost in PK's last year and had a bad game the first time we played them this year. This feels great."

Ursuline moves on to the Class 3 Sectional Tournament as it will host the winner of District 4 Tuesday.

"This district was just so tough," Slayback said. "Nerinx gave us everything they had and we knew we had a battle to the end today. Our girls came ready to play and I knew when it came to PK's that Mallory would get one. She is such a presence back there."