The Steinert Girls Soccer Team celebrates the winning goal by Emily Gulsby in overtime in their win over Princeton. Photo by Amanda Ruch Photography
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Sep. 7: The Steinert girls’ soccer team quickly discovered what it’s like to be a big game on everyone’s schedule.
It was not as much what Princeton did, but had more to do with how the Spartans approached things.
“I think we were playing tentative,” Emily Gulsby said. “We really didn’t want to lose and we forgot to play offensively and just stuck to the defensive. But the second half our coaches straightened us out and we did what we had to do.”
Especially Gulsby, who delivered a golden goal with 3:40 remaining in the first overtime as Steinert opened its season with a 2-1 victory over visiting Princeton Thursday.
It was a tenuous situation for much of the afternoon, as Steinert could not generate a powerful offensive attack. Yes, the Spartans outshot Princeton 17-4, but many of those shots were easy for standout goalie Shaylah Marciano to handle.
She made a sliding stop on Casey Grehan early on and handled a hard shot from in close by Michaela Miranda shortly after that. But after Camille Franklin scored in the 25th minute on a play that Steinert’s coaches were convinced was an offsides, the Spartans attack was soft.
“From the start we just couldn’t find that through ball, that pass that we were looking for,” midfield sparkplug Lynzie Morgan said. “During preseason we’ve been connecting so well from the start. We had just been putting them away, winning games four and five to nothing.”
To Steinert’s credit, it allowed just one shot in the first minute of the second half and no more from that point on. The only problem was, the offense was still, as Gulsby noted, tentative.
The Spartans nearly had the equalizer with 10 minutes left when Gianna Pittaro rifled a shot from 10 yards out that Marciano made a spectacular save on.
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“I was right there in front when she made that one, and it was brilliant,” Gulsby said. “She did an amazing job.
At that point, Steinert started to wonder if a season of high hopes would have a depressing start.
“I remember looking at the clock and there was eight something left, and I thought ‘We need to put one away,’” Morgan said. “It was the second half, we’re down a goal and we’re not used to that after being up every game in scrimmages this season.”
Finally, with 7:34 remaining, Grehan crossed one in front to Miranda, who was able to solve Marciano and tie the match. Suddenly, there was a new spark.
“Definitely,” Gulsby said. “We started getting frustrated with ourselves with how we were playing. We didn’t quite know how to fix it. I think we were playing down and weren’t as focused as we needed to be.
“After we scored it was kind of like an awakening. We realized ‘This is it, we can do this and we have to pull through.’”
Steinert had a few chances to score in the overtime, but Marciano was equal to the task until Gulsby took a pass from Pittaro on the right flank and lofted a shot over the keeper’s head to start the celebration.
“When I scored that goal, it was just (thinking about) practice, practice, practice, and it all came out on that shot,” Gulsby said.
“Emily’s been with us for three-and-a-half years, she can score goals,” coach Mike “Stinger” Hastings said. “That’s what we need from her.”
And a victory is what the Spartans needed, as an opening-day loss but have taken away some of the aura the team has after last year’s 19-3 season.
“It was important,” Hastings said. “They know the expectations are high and they just need to step it up. I think there were some nerves. That first game is always the toughest. There’s always a lot of anxiety. You got some kids out there it’s their first time on varsity playing a lot. That might have been part of it in the first half.”
But it got solved in the second.
“I think this game just set the mood for the entire season,” Gulsby said. “I think we’re a force to be reckoned with and I think when we really put our mind to it we can do great things.”
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