Draw controls were the name of the game in tonight’s Webster Thomas victory over Victor 8-7 in double overtime.  Junior midfielder Molly McCabe finished the game with 1g-1a and scored the game winning goal in the first Sudden Victory overtime period.

The game was split into a tale of two approximate halves.  Victor led early on and then Thomas took over late in the first.  In the beginning of the game, Victor dominated at the draw control.  In the first half they won 7/10 with Lucy Haggerty recording four and Hanna Kumpf adding another three.  The Blue Devils won the draw and got the opportunities on cage.  In the first half Victor outshot Thomas 13-6 and outscored them 6-3.  The extra time with the ball, as afforded by the draw wins, gave Victor the ability to have a four-goal lead with 5:02 remaining in the first half.

In the second half, Thomas began to win draws.  They won 3/5 in the second half and they got the extra possession time.  The evened up the shooting at 6 shots each; however, now they led 3-1 in the half.  One additional factor to keeping the Titans in the game was goalie play.  Alyssa Piechota recorded 12 saves on the game and three in the second half.  Piechota stepped up and kept the Blue Devils off the board long enough to give her offence the change to catchup and force overtime.  In the overtime periods, she recorded another 2 saves to keep play alive.

Victor opened up the scoring with four unanswered goals.  The first goal was off a parallel cut by Emily Battisti and Riley Urzetta.  Battisti fed across to the center of the field once Urzetta found open space.  A short time later and Kylie Gelabert scored the first of her three goals off an inside dodge near the center of the field.  Gelabert, a freshman, finished the game with a team leading 3g.  In addition to her offensive skills, she demonstrated strong defensive talent.  Late in the second overtime period, Thomas midfielder Mary Soures had a break down the field.  She used body possession to force Soures off track and keep her from shooting.  Gelabert also recorded three draw controls and three change of possession groundballs.  Even as a freshman she demonstrated her value to the Blue Devils program.

Haggerty scored the third Victor goal off an 8m free possession shot.  Two minutes later, Battisti recorded her second feed off a bounce pass to Danielle Colucci just past the 8m line.  Between lack of draws controls and two early saves from Victor’s Sydney DiBeradinis, the first Titan goal was not scored until 17 minutes into play.  Soures scored the first of her 3g-1a.  Abby Quinlan began the play with a drive from behind the cage.  After the defense moved, she found Soures open in the middle.  One minute later and Soures scored off the 8m line for her second.  Victor responded with two more goals in the next two minutes.  Kumpf fed the crease and found Gelabert for her second goal, followed shortly thereafter by Urzetta feeding Hope Kubinski from behind the cage.  The Blue Devils led 6-2 with 5:02 remaining in the first half.

Thomas fought back before the end of the half and added another two goals.  McCabe began the play with a drive from behind the crease.  She then popped the ball out to the right flat to give Sydney Dron the opening for the shot.  The final goal of the half was scored by Cate Robarge.  After an aggressive ride by the Thomas defense, the ball was forced to the ground near the crease.  Robarge fought hard and came up with an unsettled loose ball that she finished into the back of the net to pull the Titans within two goals (6-4).

Coming into the second half, Thomas continued their scoring streak and added another three goals.  Soures scored off an inside feed from Robarge less than one minute into play.  Soures then returned the favor with a drive and then pass out to Quinlan to tie the game for the first time at 6-6.  The Titans looked cool and in control and this point.  They kept up the constant pressure and after five minutes of back and forth play, they scored their first go-ahead goal.  Robarge scored unassisted with a drive from behind the cage along the left side.

Victor’s final goal began with an impressive drive by Haggerty.  She drove to the cage and forced movement from the defense.  She then passed the ball forward and across the crease to Gelabert.  The Blue Devils forced the tie at 2:55 remaining in regulation.  Both teams had another shot at the cage in the final three minutes and both DiBeradinis and Piechota came up with saves to keep the game tied.

The first overtime period had Thomas win the draw and take the majority of the time with the ball.  However, they could not get a shot on cage.  Victor had an attempt, but again couldn’t force the shot in their short time with the ball.  In the second overtime period, Victor won the draw.  They took their time and found a good shot on cage.  Piechota came up big with a save and gave Thomas the offensive opportunity; however, they could not capitalize.  After the two full time overtime periods, the game moved into Sudden Victory overtime.

Once again, Victor came up with the draw control.  Gelabert took a hard shot on cage that was saved again.  Piechota cleared the ball up field and got it to McCabe.  McCabe drew back and drove through the defense straight down the middle.  She finished with a hard bounce shot that scored with 2:58 remaining on the clock.

More images are available in the photo gallery.