TAMAQUA — Blue Mountain peppered Minersville keeper Maggie Wigoda with shots almost the entire game.
Eagles freshman Jacey Miller found a way to finally get one past her.
“I knew how tall the keeper was, so I had to get it low and in it went,” she said.
Fellow freshman Sydney Riegel set up Miller from just outside the 18 during the 72nd minute for the only goal as Blue Mountain downed the Miners 1-0 in a Schuylkill League girls’ soccer semifinal Tuesday at the Tamaqua Soccer Complex.
Facing a packed-in Minersville defense, the Division I champ Eagles (16-3-1) were stifled for more than 71 minutes
before finally scoring the only goal they needed. Riegel passed from down low up top to Miller, who was about 20 yards away. She then fired a shot low to the ground that ended up in the back corner of the net to the left of Wigoda.
Miller’s goal was her 11th of the season, while the assist was Riegel’s seventh.
The victory advances Blue Mountain to the championship game against Division I champ Pine Grove at 5 p.m. Saturday at Tri-Valley’s Bulldog Stadium. The Cardinals (19-1) beat Williams Valley 4-0 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.
It will be the fourth meeting between the two this season, with the Cardinals winning two. The most recent meeting was the Division I tiebreaker Monday, won by Pine Grove 4-3.
The Eagles will be playing for their fifth title since joining the league in 2010. The only year Blue Mountain didn’t win a championship was in 2014 when it lost to Schuylkill Haven in the semifinals.
For Miller, Tuesday was her first experience playing in the league playoffs. It couldn’t have been better.
“Honestly, it was amazing,” she said. “I mean, the game-winning goal.”
Minersville (16-3), the Division II champ, was playing in its 10th league playoff game Tuesday. Coach Jeff Rinaldo didn’t feel Minersville could compete with Blue Mountain’s depth, so he played more of a defensive game, taking the scoring opportunities when they came.
Those chances didn’t come very often.
“We knew we weren’t going to be able to match the speed this team has with the numbers he has off the bench,” Rinaldo said. “The thing was, a lot of these girls thought they were going to be tired because they played last night ... that was like a warm-up for them. When you have as many girls as he has and the caliber of players he has, that was a warm-up. They came out, they weren’t tired at all.
“We didn’t play two good halves tonight. We played a better second half than first half.”
The Eagles dominated possession the entire game, holding an 18-0 advantage in shots on goal. But the Miners, who came in allowing 22 goals this season, played a solid defensive game. That was especially the case for Wigoda, who finished with 17 saves.
The sophomore was perhaps at her best early in the second half when Blue Mountain generated better scoring opportunities. Wigoda stopped 12 of the 13 shots she faced in the second half.
“They made some really nice, quality shots, but Maggie is that type of keeper,” Rinaldo said. “These are games that really hurt for Maggie and hurt for me because when we don’t score and Maggie has a game of that caliber, it hurts. If we would have had the chances Blue Mountain had, the score certainly would have been different. We just didn’t get those chances.”
Maintaining possession also made Minersville’s Abby Schoffstall, the league’s leading scorer with 37 goals and 22 assists, a non-factor in the game. Schoffstall was marked by the Eagles’ Kylie Kutz before she was moved back to help defensively.
“Especially when they moved Schoffstall back you could tell, to me, it seemed like they going to try and keep the game 0-0 and see if they could pick one off,” Blue Mountain coach Mike Burcik said. “With that move, they really hunkered in there. It really tightened things up in the back and lessened our space to create opportunities.”
Blue Mountain won despite playing its second game in less than 24 hours following Monday’s tiebreaker. Now, the Eagles will get another shot at Pine Grove.
“We just had to keep our heads up even though we were frustrated with the game (Monday) night,” Miller said. “Just keep our heads up and work from that.
“I feel like we started kind of slow in the beginning. But as the game went on, we started to progress and work as a team.”
Game Summary
Schuylkill League Girls’ Soccer Semifinal
At Tamaqua Soccer Complex
Blue Mountain (16-3-1) 0 1 — 1
Minersville (16-3) 0 0 — 0
BM — Miller (Riegel), 71:14
Shots on goal: Blue Mountain 18, Minersville 0. Corner kicks: Blue Mountain 6, Minersville 0. Saves: Blue Mountain (Derrick) 0, Minersville (Wigoda) 17.