Andrew Constant – Sports Writer

Monroe’s Stephanie Pasewaldt, left, and South Brunswick’s Brielle Errico chase down the ball in Tuesday’s GNC Girls Soccer Tournament quarterfinal. Photo by: Ed Pagliarini

MONMOUTH JCT. — Three times proved to be a charm for the South Brunswick High School girls soccer team Tuesday afternoon. The third-seeded Vikings, who lost a pair of overtime games during the regular season, refused to make it a trio of defeats in extra time and got a sudden-death goal from Cagnie Antczak for a 3-2 victory over sixth-seeded Monroe in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

With a throw-in from the right side of the field four minutes into overtime, South Brunswick’s Brielle Errico tossed it in and, after a pair of touches, the ball landed on Antczak’s left foot. The senior lofted a shot that eluded the outstretched arms of Monroe goalkeeper Erin Seppi, setting off a celebration as the Vikings advanced to Thursday’s GMCT semifinals.

“It’s one of the greatest feelings to know that you scored a goal for your team,” Antczak said. “To win the game for my team is an amazing feeling. It’s indescribable.”

Overtime was needed after a crazy sequence in the 64th minute, which saw both sides score goals within 30 seconds of each other. With the score tied at 1-1, South Brunswick won a corner kick and the ball went all the way through the box and came out to Taylor Brantely, who buried it on the short side.

But Monroe was not fazed; they took the ball straight down the field and worked it to sophomore Brooke Bussiere, who chipped it past South Brunswick goalkeeper Sydney Schneider to even the score.

“We talked a lot about how teams play differently in the postseason, because it’s a life-or-death kind of situation,” South Brunswick head coach Beth Barrio said. “And I think that the girls were prepared to have a tough game today. We knew coming in that Monroe was going to be a very difficult opponent; we played them twice in the regular season and when it went into overtime, I don’t think they were surprised.”

Before Antczak’s heroics in overtime, Errico had three separate rushes up the field, all resulting in shots wide of the net. But Barrio said she had stressed to her squad before the extra period began that they didn’t want it to get to penalty kicks.

“We’d been in this situation before and we know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of an OT game and we didn’t want it to get to penalty kicks; that would be a terrible way for this to end,” she said. “So we just tried to pump them up and say that the third time is the charm and that it was their game.”

In the early going, it looked like Monroe would be the team celebrating, especially after its two stars combined for the game’s first goal. Demi Rousseau dribbled all the way down the right wing and crossed a perfect ball to the foot of Taylor Evanchik, who tapped it home in the seventh minute.

But South Brunswick refused to go away, and in the 34th minute, the Vikings won a penalty kick after one of their players was hauled down in the box. Sam Stojanovski calmly stepped up and knocked it in, knotting the score at 1-1.

South Plainfield’s Michaella Butrico, left and Brianna Boyce celebrate a goal in 2-1 victory over Sayreville on Wednsday. Photo by: Ed Pagliarini

SOUTH PLAINFIELD — With nearly a week to prepare for a third meeting against Sayreville, the South Plainfield High School girls soccer team came out with a plan and executed it perfectly on Wednesday, emerging with a 2-1 victory in the first round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament.

The Tigers, seeded 16th in the tournament, got goals from Caity Hughes and Michaella Butrico to avenge a pair of contests in the regular season against their White Division rivals in which they were unable to pick up a victory.

South Plainfield’s reward for a hard-fought victory is a trip to play the tournament’s top seed — East Brunswick — on Friday.

Hughes got the Tigers on the board 17 minutes in when she followed up a blocked shot in the box and got in behind her defender before blasting home a low line drive to the lower third of the net. Just a freshman, Hughes executed exactly what head coach Danielle Chiera had planned for the contest.

“It was really great because we’ve spent the last two days going over how we were going to pressure and defend Sayreville and Caity did her job today,” Chiera said. “She had to deny (Sayreville defender) Nicole Raub any service out of their end and when the ball got blocked and Raub stepped out, Caity got in behind her and put it in. She got us a big goal when we needed it.”

The lead stood at 1-0 until the 49th minute, when Butrico was the beneficiary of another loose ball in front of the Sayreville net. South Plainfield had worked the ball down the field, eventually sending in a through-ball towards the net, but Brianna Boyce’s shot was blocked and it skidded to Butrico’s foot and she didn’t miss it.

South Plainfield kept the pressure on throughout the remainder of the second half, but Sayreville wouldn’t go away quietly. With four minutes to play, the 17th-seeded Bombers created their own scrum in the box, and this time they put away a loose ball. Morgan Guenther sent a shot just out of the reach of Sydni Suroweic to cut the lead in half.

The final moments were full of chaotic possessions, with neither side looking comfortable at all, but as the final whistle blew, it was South Plainfield moving one step closer to a conference title.

“I thought both teams played real hard and it was a great soccer game today between two good White Division teams,” Chiera said. “I think the girls just wanted it a little bit more today. They were very excited for this game and they came out very strong and you can never count Sayreville out.”

Friday’s matchup against an East Brunswick side that’s skidding a bit of late will be a tall task, but Chiera has no doubt her squad will come out ready to go.

“I’ll tell the girls that on any given day, anyone can win. If they get psyched up the way they did today, it should be a pretty good game,” she said. “We’re not giving up and we’re going to come out strong.”

Bishop Ahr’s Sarah Harman (left) goes up for a header during the first half of Tuesday’s game. Photo by: Mark R. Sullivan

WOODBRIDGE — The Bishop Ahr High School girls soccer team got a pair of goals in the opening three minutes and added four insurance markers in the final 15 to walk away with a 6-0 victory over Colonia Tuesday afternoon.

The win marked the 12th straight shutout for goalkeeper Brianna Foster and the Trojans’ defense, who have allowed just one goal all season long.

Bishop Ahr (12-1) got on top 42 seconds in when Jill Vassallo crossed a perfect ball into the box that Alexa Poveliaitis knocked home and less than three minutes later, Lindsey Scarmozzino tapped home an easy goal right in front of the net to give her teammates all the insurance they needed.

“We had nice energy when we came out today, got up two and kind of relaxed a little bit. We still had control of the game and we had opportunities to add to the lead, but we didn’t finish them,” head coach Jim Tavormina said. “But, we talked at halftime and made a couple of changes and inserted a little bit of energy and started rolling.”

One of those changes was to insert Rielly Mullin to an offensive role and Mullin rewarded her coaches’ faith with a pair of second half goals. Mullin, usually a defensive player in Bishop Ahr’s lineup, converted a cross from Vassallo in the 69th minute and capped the scoring with a tap-in eight minutes later.

“We put Rielly up front and she inserted a good amount of energy up there and she got herself two goals,” Tavormina said. “We just pick each other up and we did a really nice job to finish the deal here on a very nice regular season.”

Vassallo finished with two goals and two assists on the day, the last of which came when she ran through the Colonia defense and faked out goalkeeper Juli Wright for the goal in the 72nd minute.

“I saw the ball going through and I saw the keeper coming at me and I knew I had to go strong and I just made a move around her and it was an easy finish,” Vassallo said.

Since a 1-0 loss to Old Bridge on Sept. 10, Bishop Ahr has not allowed a goal, a span that’s now well over 900 minutes of game time. They’ll have more than a week off before their first GMCT match, but Vassallo doesn’t think that’ll hurt her and her teammates.

“We just need to stay focused and we can’t lack in attention to detail and we need to stay strong in this time off that we have,” she said.

Wright finished with 15 saves for Colonia, who just could not muster an offensive threat to Foster and the rest of the Trojans’ defense.