Published: November 05, 2009 11:29 pm      

District 6 Soccer: Rams defeat Crushers in girls championship clash

JOHNSTOWN — The Richland Lady Rams soccer team hoisted the District Six AA Championship trophy Thursday night following a 1-0 victory over Bishop McCort at Johnstown High.

“This proves we were the number one seed for a reason,’’ said an exuberant and gratified Nathan Gironda. “This is what we expected to happen. We played our game and performed the way we thought we would and controlled play.”

Maura Koshute scored the game-winning goal with 25:37 left in the first half after Richland had managed a flurry of activity in front of the Crushers net.

“We had a mix-up in the back and they put it in,” said Joe Petak, Bishop McCort’s coach. “I knew one goal in this game would be the difference.”

The championship for the Rams comes on the brink of their best season in school history, finishing 18-1-2. In their third contest this season against Bishop McCort, Richland finally earned the victory after losing the first time and settling for a tie in a mid-October match-up at Point Stadium. This win, however, comes in a dominating effort on the field as Richland keeper Katie Ross faced a total of four Bishop McCort shots and watched her midfielders and defenders dominate play.

“After the first twenty minutes I thought we controlled the play much of the game,” added Gironda. “We didn’t do anything different than our previous meetings. We just played our game.”

Gironda and the Rams did have a plan to control the Bishop McCort’s most noted threat in the championship game.

“We were most concerned with Emily Basile, so we had Carlie Bodenschatz mark her the entire game. I think that made a difference,” Gironda said.

“McCort is a dangerous team. We knew they could connect at any point and we knew they would play physical tonight so we had to step up and play physical against them,” Gironda said.

With the 1-0 lead going into the second half, Richland strikers managed to mount five of their nine shots in the final forty minutes. One shot hit the crossbar midway through the second half and another grazed the goal post. The Rams had visibly frustrated McCort on the field once acquired the lead seemed impossible to overcome.

“They (Richland) were really aggressive today and we didn’t put anything together well. It wasn’t out greatest game,” said Petak, whose team fell to 16-2-2 on the year. Richland and Bishop McCort will both advance into state playoff action starting Tuesday.