BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Sarah Dodd didn’t want to take the first penalty kick.
The Karns City freshman wasn’t about to shy away from taking the second.
With a little less than two minutes remaining in overtime, Dodd placed a perfect PK shot just over the outstretched hand of Clearfield keeper Allison Shipley to give the Gremlins a 3-2 win and a District 9 Class 2A championship.
Earlier in the overtime, McKenna Martin was turned away on her own PK opportunity.
“It was pretty nerve-racking,” Dodd said. “If you miss, then we’re probably going to be in another overtime and then maybe penalty kicks, which would have been very stressful.”
Not that this match between the two top teams in the district was a casual stroll in the park. Clearfield came in at 19-0 as the defending champs. Karns City (14-3) entered the night with a chip on its collective shoulder after losing the title match to the Bison a year ago.
In practice, Dodd had the highest percentage on penalty kicks. Karns City coach Tracy Dailey isn’t sure why that is — perhaps the freshman just has a knack for them. Even Dodd can’t explain why she buries them so frequently.
That made Dodd the logical choice to try to finally end this back-and-forth match.
“We keep stats on it in practice and (Dodd) is by far our best penalty kick taker,” Dailey said. “We asked her if she wanted to take the first one and she said, ‘No, no, no. I don’t want it.’ And then McKenna hits the keeper. The second PK comes and Sarah said, ‘I want it.’ She got that confidence and just buried it, which was a huge moment for her being a freshman.”
The winning goal ended another wild night between the two teams.
Clearfield scored first on a goal by Emma Hipps.
Karns City, though, responded with a goal by Martin to tie the match at 1-1. That score stood until a little more than eight minutes left in regulation when Martin scored again to give the Gremlins a 2-1 lead.
Clearfield scored the equalizer on a goal by Elle Smith with just 3:18 remaining in the second half.
“That was definitely rough,” Dailey said.
The coach gathered her team before the overtime period and delivered a pointed message.
“Who wants it? Who wants it more?” Dailey said.
Senior keeper Rossi McMillen certainly did. She was a big reason why the match even got to overtime.
McMillen made a staggering 31 saves for Karns City, many of them on the difficult side.
“Rossi McMillen had the game of her life,” Dailey said. “She made numerous diving saves, saves at point-blank range. She had a huge game for us tonight.”
McMillen has been a steady presence in goal for the Gremlins, but over the last two weeks has worked extensively with Karns City assistant coach Tyler Pollock to get ready for the kind of pressure she was going to see from Clearfield.
The hard work paid off.
“She worked her butt off. She has just been relentless at practice,” Dailey said. “She and Tyler did a lot of one-on-one work to prepare for this game. She saved the game for us.”
McMillen said she had no idea how many saves she had until after the match.
It even shocked her.
“Words can’t describe what this means to me and to this team to beat Clearfield this year,” McMillen said. “At the end, I just felt relieved. I was very excited and happy for our team that we finally pulled out a win we didn’t get last year.”
KARNS CITY 4, ST. MARYS 0
It was a good night all around for Karns City soccer.
The Gremlins’ boys team built a 2-0 lead at the half on the strength of goals by Seth Bishop and Myles McCully and closed out the victory with a pair of goals by Jacob Callihan in the second half.
It was the second consecutive District 9 Class 2A title for the Gremlins and their eighth straight appearance in the championship match.
This one, though, feel extra special.
Karns City started just one senior this season and a slew of sophomores. Before the season started, Gremlins’ coach Jim Grenninger was hopeful his team could just make it far enough to play for a crown, let alone win one.
There were some growing pains, but Karns City peaked at the right time.
“We had fun and they grew,” Grenninger said. “There’s no egos. I have eight guys who have five or more goals and four of them with over 12 goals, so we’re sharing the ball and passing getting work done night after night.”
Bishop got things going early for Karns City with a goal off of a cross from McCully less than five minutes into the match.
McCully then scored to make it 2-0 off of an assist from Callihan.
Lucas Yasika recorded the shutout in goal with 14 saves.
“Tonight of all night after I pretty much played Yasika on and off all season was a force tonight. It was the best he’s played all year.
“This is pretty satisfying for a young group of guys,” Grenninger said. “It was especially special for Cole Sherwin, Lathan Price and Colson Ritzert, who couldn’t play in last year’s championship game because of COVID-19 contact tracing. They missed out on it, so for them to be a part of it tonight was special for those three guys.”
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