Goalie helps Keene upset H/B girls soccer

Friday, October 28, 2011

HOLLIS – Peter Clarke put it all into a neat nutshell:

“She was spectacular,” the Hollis/Brookline High School girls soccer coach said of his worst nightmare: Keene’s goalie, Dani Warhall.

Warhall made some great saves during regulation, then committed highway (or perhaps soccer pitch) robbery during two overtimes before making a huge save on Hollis/Brookline’s fifth and final penalty kick to give Keene a 2-1 (4-3) win in the first round of the Division I playoffs on Wednesday.

“She kept them in the game,” Clarke said of Warhall. “Let’s see, she tipped away one that was going into an open goal, she took away three breakaways. Yeah, she was solid all day. She was the difference in the game.”

Clarke’s girls played well all day and put a lot of pressure on the Keene defense in the two 20-minute overtimes, but Warhall just kept coming up big, especially against the Cavaliers’ Hannah Modeski in the OTs. In the first of them, Warhall came out and made a great block on a Modeski shot, then another Modeski blast hit the post.

Later, Modeski got a breakaway and Warhall came out and made a sliding stop.

She also stopped a break by Sam Spargo in the first overtime.

Warhall made other great plays in regulation, first stopping a good shot by Erin Shields who almost had a breakaway but got the shot off with a Keene player right on her hip.

“I think we outplayed them from end to end, but she got the job done,” Clarke said of Warhall.

Keene took a 1-0 lead on a direct kick by Shannon Summers after Warhall made two great saves – one sliding to kick away a shot, then, when the rebound went to Hollis/Brookline, leaping high and to her left to slap the ball wide of the net.

“I thought we got really unlucky with the call against us when they scored on the direct kick. That really put Keene in the game,” Clarke said. “It gave them the emotion they needed to think they could pull off a big upset.”

Keene, 8-8 in the regular season, was the 11th seed in the tournament. Hollis/Brookline, 10-3-3, was seeded six.

“We did all we could,” Clarke said. “We regrouped. We had great defending, great transition through the midfield, didn’t give up another goal, and we had three, four, maybe five good opportunities so we could have taken the game back. It just wasn’t to be.”

The Cavaliers tied the game in the first half. Alicia Bourque put a corner kick high into the middle of a crowd and Kara Jaramillo headed it home.

When it went to penalty kicks, Warhall made one more big save on the final shot of the match when each team had three penalty kick goals. It came down to Ally Hill, who put the ball into the net for the Keene win.