Kennedy’s season ends in 2-1 defeat to Badgers
BRUNSWICK — Trailing 1-0 at halftime to Burton Berkshire, Warren JFK girls soccer head coach Kayla Zoccole said she reminded her team, as she has done all season, that they do not lose at home.
The coach was telling the truth; the Eagles won each match on the grass field behind their school this season.
But on Tuesday, Zoccole and her players were on the turf at Brunswick High School, about 75 miles west of the Kennedy campus.
“Home has become this team,” Zoccole said. “We said that we are home here, and we don’t lose no matter what.”
The message seemed to resonate, as Eagles star Didi Ryan tied the match early in the second half. However, Kennedy, announced as the away team for Tuesday’s playoff match, could not extend its season any further and fell 2-1 to Berkshire after surrendering a second goal with less than 15 minutes left in the Division V, Region 17 semifinal.
“[I’m] obviously disappointed in the outcome, but proud of these girls,” Zoccole said. “No matter what, every game that we’ve played all season, we’ve been in, we’ve competed in and, in my opinion, could have won. And I feel the same way about tonight.”
The Eagles found themselves behind shortly before the midway point in the first half after Berkshire’s Marissa Karl managed to gain control of the ball in a scrum near Kennedy’s goal and put it in the back of the net.
The Badgers carried the 1-0 lead into halftime, but only after JFK goalkeeper Riley Curd ensured her team did not trail by multiple goals; Curd recorded three close-range saves in the final three minutes of the first half, including a penalty kick with less than 90 seconds left.
Berkshire coach Ian Patterson said his team was well aware of the talent of Ryan, the Eagles’ leading goal scorer, and specifically tried to shut her down Tuesday.
“The whole message, to be honest, [was] to keep her on her right foot,” Patterson said. “She’s still a good player on her right foot, but it seems like she’s not quite as comfortable on her right foot. So that’s what we were trying to do.”
The Badgers’ plan worked for a while, but shortly after emerging from the break, Ryan raced up the field with multiple defenders in tow, got the ball on her left foot and delivered a strong shot into the right side of Berkshire’s net.
“We’re sending two, three girls at her, and she’s still getting back to her left foot, and we knew she was trying to go there. So she’s a phenomenal player,” Patterson said. “[…] It’s the entire game plan. And it seems like, the one thing we’re focused on trying to shut down, she still finds a way to get back to it.”
With 15 minutes left, Ryan nearly added another to her seemingly ever-growing goal total when she went on a similar run down the field and put another hard, fast shot on goal.
But the Badgers, after the save, quickly turned defense into offense.
Berkshire immediately countered Ryan’s run with one of its own, which ended with Kelly McCandless giving her team back the lead.
In the 14:29 after McCandless’s go-ahead goal, Kennedy failed to generate many chances at tying the match and ultimately could not respond before the final whistle.
With the loss, Kennedy’s season concludes in the regional semifinal, just three days after capturing a district championship with a 4-3 win vs. Andrews Osborne Academy.
Zoccole said that only having a few days, including Sunday, to prepare for the biggest match of the season was a challenge.
Despite the difficulties and disappointment of Tuesday’s result, the Kennedy coach came away from the season-ending defeat with a sense of pride, a message she attempted to convey to her dejected team.
“I tried to just put into perspective how proud I am of them and how much we have accomplished,” Zoccole said. “There are a lot of things this year that this team had not accomplished, let alone made it this far into the tournament. So even though we end in a loss, I’m very proud of the journey.”
Zoccole, who became Kennedy’s coach in 2017, hopes the lessons, even hurtful ones like Tuesday’s loss, that this team learned will help future JFK rosters overcome similar obstacles.
“I think this [match] is going to be a huge talking point for us, especially the rest of this bus ride and all of next season,” Zoccole said. “When you’re down 2-1 in a game and you can win it, you have to come back and win it. There’s no other option.”