November 20, 2007 -
The Under 13A Heart capped their fall season by capturing the PAGS premier division championship for U-13
girls. This marks the fourth top division championship for the Heart in its five year career, running its five-year record
in league play and playoffs to 38-5-8. The Heart also captured this year’s Hershey Premier Labor Day tournament
championship, and was a semi-finalist in the WAGS Under 13 tournament where it went undefeated in
group play before losing a tightly contested semi-final match against a talented North Carolina squad that ultimately
won the flight championship.
The kickoff to the season was a team outing to see the U.S. men’s under-20 national team and the U.S. women’s
national team in international friendly matches at the Meadowlands. The team was the guest of USSF President
Sunil Gulati for a trip down to the field during the women’s team warm-ups and to the locker room runways for
autographs and cell phone pictures with national team players including Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Kristine
Lilly and Heather Mitts. While the Heart got to see the U.S. claim two wins that day, the Heart’s own campaign got
off to a rough start with two consecutive losses. After turning the corner with its first win in the team’s third game,
the team offense began to click with two or three goals in each of its remaining league games as the team showed
good improvement in attacking with numbers as a team. The team’s defense improved, culminating in four shutouts
and only one goal against in its last five games. Improved discipline and communication made it a very rare
sight by the end of the season to ever find an opposing player with the ball behind the last line of defense.
The playoffs began with a game against a
powerful Baltimore Bays team. The Heart
drew first blood on a goal from the team’s
leading scorer Salina Williford, but Baltimore
responded with a goal of their own
mid-way through the second half. The tension
of a golden goal overtime ended in
less than two minutes when Julianna Bradley
found the goal in a wild scrum in front
of Baltimore’s net. With a semi-final victory
against the Maryland state champion behind
them, the final game brought on the
Delaware state champion, Hockessin
Spirit, who had gone through the regular
season without a loss. Williford again got
the Heart on the score board first with a
shot from the right side that found side netting.
The defending was relentless and
preserved the 1-0 shutout.
In a season that was marked by improving team play on offense and defense, congratulations are well deserved
for great play up front from Julianna Bradley, Carly Ichniowski, Samara Kitnick, Nanci Selig, and Salina Williford;
in the midfield from Caleigh Foust, Moira Petrie, Martha Zeller and Mary Zeller; and in the back, keeping the team
in every match, Elaine Byerley, Kiersten Daly, Sophie Katz, and Paige Phillips and keepers Sydney Frank and
Alex Srolis. While the wins and championships always came on Saturdays and Sundays, it was the hard work on
the days in between that made the successful results possible.