The 1989 version of the Point Pleasant Boro High School girls soccer team had just about it all.
The Panthers were a senior-dominated team, led by stopper Karen Anderson, goalie Jennifer MacIver, as well as defender Andrea Mucho and backups Alaine Kamin and Jen Apito. But the talent was from a dominant underclassmen group that included sophomore Wendi Pearce, junior center-midfielder Jennifer Shutt, junior defender Charisse Hopkins and junior forward Kim Yankowski, who set the county record for goals in a season with 48 and had 16 assists as well.
This Panthers team was 18-0 and had outscored its opponents by a mind-blowing 117-3. Now mind you, the Panthers were in a horribly weak Class C Conference and at times so dominant, they didn't even play tyhhe full 80 minutes.
This team, like the 16-0-2 team of 1987 that won the Shore Conference Tournament, was ear-marked for history. These Panthers just couldn't lose. They were dominant without question.
And on the night of Monday, June 5, 1989, the Panthers, the top seed of this year's tournament, was set up with a semifinal matchup against the Lacey Lions, the fourth seed.
In 1987, these Lions were the only team at the Shore that could "figure out" the unbeaten Panthers, finishing in a pair of ties against them. But that year, the Lions lost to Wall in the SCT semifinal round and it was Wall which lost to Point Boro for the title. In 1988, Lacey was in a transitional year and lost in the opening round of the tournament, while a one-loss Boro team was being shocked on its home field in the SCT semifinals by Toms River North.
Now finally, the Lions and Panthers were going to meet on the same field for the first time in two years on Boro's soccer field. And the Lions were a hot team -- coach Paul Groben's team had won 16 straight matches going into this semifinal with a record of 17-2-1. They had a dynamic duo up front in junior Jen Grike and sophomore Sara Patiro. They had senior midfielder Casey Musselman and they also had a strong defense dictated by senior twins Dawn and Denise Dickten. Dawn was the sweeper in front of her goalie sister.
Lacey definitely had a chance, but the Lions needed to land some quick jabs and important punches if they were to knock out the mighty Panthers.
I arrived at Boro's field and it was a packed stadium that night. Boro's fans knew if they got through this one, they could win it all. What they didn't expext was Lacey's fans having the same exact thought.
The first thing I noticed was sophomore defender Sheri Sheridan drawing the toughest assignment: She had to cover Yankowski one on one, following after her like she was Mary's little lamb. Everywhere Yankowski went, so, too, went Sheridan. And no, at times it wasn't pretty, but Sheridan did her best to shadow the Shore's best player for 80 minutes.
But the thing was that Point Boro had the action mostly in Lacey's part of the field. So in that regard, it was inevitable that the Panthers were going to get on the board. But that was a gamble Groben and assistant coach Tom Hamilton were going to take. You don't give yourself a chance to win unless you have your defense on top of things.
Boro had numerous chances, but Lacey's defense with Dawn Dickten being a part of almost everything on defense kept the Panthers off the scoreboard.
Amd after two 20-minute quarters, it was a scoreless tie. I count up my shots at halftime. Boro has 13. Lacey has one. How long is Lacey going to hold the fort down for? It was inevitable that the Panthers were going to score.
The second half began and Sheridan kept on Yankowski, while freshman Niki Kosloski and sophomore Karyn Krause were sticking close to Shutt. Shutt had 16 goals and 17 assists going into this game, but Groben noticed something that only an eagle-eyed soccer purist noticed.
"When we noticed Shutt was not playing all that well out there, we took the double-team off of her and freed Niki up to play offense," he said afterward.
Good call. From her midfield position, Kosloski was able to bring the ball past the midway point of the field. She saw Boro coming three players strong defensively, so the plan from Groben was when they could get out on a break, start Grike and Patiro in between the three defenders -- in other words, run through the two pathways the three defenders allowed the Lions to have.
Kosloski sent a through-ball in toward Grike, who came in on MacIver, who must have been shocked by what she was seeing. MacIver stopped the blast from about 10 yards out, but could not retrieve the ball. Patiro came in and beat MacIver to the ball, poking her right-footed shot past MacIver.
Suddenly, it was a much different game with the Lions leading 1-0, with about 30 minutes left.
For that next 30 minutes, the Panthers dominated down at Lacey's end, but could never really get a good enough shot at Denise Dickten. The third quarter ended and for Lacey, the plan was 20 more minutes of survival.
With Lacey playing a man-to-man defense, the Panthers were frustrated. They got shots, but not good enough. And tine was ticking away on them down a goal.
Ten minutes turned into five minutes, then four, then three. And Boro had its last great chance in that next minute. Somehow, it was Kamin who got loose and had a one on one with Denise Dickten. How did the Lions mess this one up? It was about to become 1-1.
Except it didn't. The aggressive Denise Dickten jumped on the shot opportunity and made the point-blank save of Kamin with 2:26 to go.
In the end, Denise Dickten made 12 saves. And the Panthers outshot the Lions by a ridiculous 21-4 margin, But as the final whistle blew, Lacey players jumped up and down, about to celebrate the biggest victory in program history.
Boro fans were stunned, some strong enough to give the Panthers players a warm round of applause even though they weren't the ones moving on to the final.
The first player I saw on the Boro side after the congratulatory handshakes was Kerry Hoffmaster, a longtime senior defender. The only person in the world that mattered to her was her dad Jim, a longtime wrestling assistant coach at Boro. She just completely fell apart in his arms, sobbing like the world just came to an end.
Well, no it didn't. Just her career.
I found Groben, who praised his players for staying strong the entire time, even though they were dominated by a Panthers team that did everything but put the ball in the back of the net.
"It was really hard to keep up with (Yankowski)," Sheridan said afterward. "But that's what kept me go ing. When we scored, everything was awesome. I just wanted to give 100%. They were tough, but they didn't play any tough teams on their schedule. We did."
She wasn't wrong. But Dawn Dickten admitted one thing.
"When Yankowski came down on some of those breakaways, I was praying for a Hail Mary somewhere," she said.
Lacey's players and coaches left more than pleased. Five days later, the Lions derfeated third-seeded Middletown North, 5-2, for their first-ever SCT title under Groben.
As for Panthers coach Bob Kulessa, it was obvious what went wrong.
"We didn't put the ball in the net," he started. "But you have to give them credit. I was proud of the way we played."
A year later and with a brand new weapon -- freshman forward Christie Pearce -- the Panthers exacted revenge on everyone by going 20-0 and outscoring their opponents, 190-5, beating Wall in the SCT title game, 3-1.
Five years later, another Lacey team went unbeaten behind star playrs Dana Jurczyk and Corey Musselman and won its second SCT championship.
But when I look back at the coaching career of the late Paul Groben, I am always reminded of that night when his Lions slayed the beast known as Point Pleasant Boro, 1-0.
These Lions absolutely had courage.
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