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The entire season of the Good Counsel girls’ soccer team came down to one final kick, but it will be a kick that no member of the squad will forget for the rest of their lives.

In the second half of overtime in their championship game against St. John’s College High School, the ball rolled out to Jessica Daly following a Good Counsel corner, and she was able to strike the ball just past the diving goalie to give her team the 1-0 victory and the WCAC Girls’ Championship. The game had been a defensive struggle throughout, neither team managing to trouble either goalie much, but once it finally reached overtime everybody knew it would only take one special moment for a team to break free and grab the trophy.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve even been to a championship game,” commented Good Counsel’s head coach Jim Bruno following the game. “But it feels really great. St. John’s came out as a very different team to the one we faced earlier, and they played a really incredible game. But obviously for my girls it feels well-deserved.”

The hard-fought battle for both sides displayed true effort right from the start; it just so turned out that a lot of that battle was fought in the midfield. As the teams pushed in the first half to try and create chances, it became clear very quickly that it was going to be a close game.

The sides had about equal pressure for most of the half, although the best chance may have come when Deja Walker took a powerful long shot for St. John’s from 20 yards out, but it caromed off the top of the crossbar and out of play. Moments earlier she had a closer shot excellently palmed away by Good Counsel goalie Lexi Rudolph. The Falcons of Good Counsel had slightly better possession for most of the half, but strong play from the Cadets’ defense, particularly center-back Ally Grossman prevented the Falcons from ever creating a truly promising chance.

The second half continued to play out in a similar style to the first, as the teams attempted to create a breakaway, but with little success. The pressure, physicality, and excitement level picked up a notch, however, as the crowd got increasingly into the game and the players persisted in trying to take the all-important lead. The most notable moment of the second half was when St. John’s Coach Emily Janss was ejected from the game due to her back talking with the referees. As she went to watch the rest of the game from the stands with 14 minutes remaining, her team kept trying to keep their season alive. It looked like the Falcons may have grabbed a last-second winner when a scuffle in front of goal appeared to end with the ball in the St. John’s net, but the referee called a handball against the Falcons, effectively ending any chance of either team scoring in regulation.

Overtime was the first phase of the game in that either team really looked like taking a lead, as Good Counsel immediately began to dominate the period. As the Cadets struggled to get the ball out of their own half, multiple shots missed inches wide for the Falcons, including a few particularly close ones from Midge Purce. Finally, with four minutes remaining in the second half of overtime, Alexis Prada’s corner into the area deflected off a few different players before rolling out to Jess Daly to slam the decisive strike into the back of the net. The Good Counsel bench and players immediately stormed towards Daly in jubilation, excitement taking over as their season filled with success finally reached its climax.

“It feels really unbelievable,” exclaimed a euphoric Jessica Daly following the game, “They are a really good team, but in the end we just had that little extra and we came out a little harder towards the end and that’s what gave us the championship.”

“We were knocking on the door a lot throughout the game,” noted Coach Bruno after his team’s victory, “and Kerry [Mueller] even tried to slap one in [referring to the disallowed handball goal], but I think they got a little tired towards the end, and our persistence was just a little much as we got into the overtime.”

The championship marked the first time since the 2001 season that the Good Counsel Lady Falcons have won the finals of the WCAC tournament, despite being in the championship game numerous times. They entered the tournament as the first seed having lost only one conference game all season, and finishing with a record of 13-1-4 (16-2-5 overall).

The eighth-seeded Cadets had gone on a remarkable run throughout the playoffs as underdogs, but were just unable to hold Good Counsel at the true culmination of their season.

Scoring Summary

Good Counsel Saves: Lexi Rudolph (6)

Good Counsel Goals: Jessica Daly

St. John’s Saves: Kirsten Glad (9)