Following a first-round win filled with scoring frustration, Leon Goldstein picked up on a disturbing trend when scouting Bard, its next opponent. The Raptors had allowed just eight goals during the regular season, four to top-seeded Beacon.
“Everything was kind of like a shutout for them,” Dolphins coach Joanna Soares said.
It was one of the reason why her team walked out proud following a 4-3 loss to No. 11 Bard that was a more like a shootout in the second round of the PSAL Class A playoffs last Tuesday, Nov. 2 at Dyker Beach. No. 6 Goldstein held leads of 2-1 and 3-2, but could not hold on. Isabel Cristo, who scored twice, tied the score in the 62nd minute and Zoe Kessler tallied the winner in the 72nd.
“When we were scoring we had some hope that we had a chance of winning,” said senior Caitlin Corcoran, who had the overtime winner in the opening round, said. “But towards the end when they started scoring it was like rapid fire.”
The striker tied the score at 1 off a long through ball from Pamela Wishart in the ninth minute. Wishart scored on a breakaway in the 13th minute to give the Dolphins a 2-1 lead at the half. Bard (11-3-0), which controlled the ball the majority of the game, got even again right after the break on a Safiyah Riddle goal, but Corcoran answered with a goal on a through ball from Pamela Chernyakhovsky in the 52nd minute to make it 3-2.
“I just found my way past the last defender,” Corcoran said.
The Dolphins (11-3-0) defense, led by Ariel Monserrate and goalie Rebecca Candelaria (16 saves) held strong under the pressure until the final 20 minutes. Soares said she entertained the option of going to a more defensive formation, but didn’t want to further stifle her team’s offensive chances.
The lost didn’t lessen their enthusiasm for the success they had this season, including their first Brooklyn A-III division title. They lost 9-0 to Beacon in the second round last year and Wishart and Chernyakhovsky both return.
“The whole thing was the play better in the playoff,” Soares said. “Which we did. We were hoping to go to round three, but I’ll take this 4-3 score.”
