GCC Crushes Freedom For 3rd Girls A Soccer Title in 4 Years

By: Bruce Markey
Saturday, November 1, 2014 | 4:24 PM

The start was at 11:00am, but for the Freedom Bulldogs it may as well been at midnight. Freedom was not able to finish off their Cinderella run when they lost to the top seeded Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions 9-1 in WPIAL Class A Soccer Championships.

The game started out like the semi-final game for Freedom vs Shady Side Academy and they controlled the ball and played offense most of the first five minutes. The problem was though after that it was all Centurions.

Greensburg opened the scoring when senior Cassie Sauder took a shot from twenty yards out and it cleared the Bulldogs keeper Jacklyn Hartle at the 7:58 mark. 

The Centurions didn’t waste much time between goals when at the 15:46 mark Abby Skatel then chipped a shot over Hartle from about 16yards out.  The chip came on a bouncing ball that it didn’t seem Skatel was going to be able to get much of a shot on but she did. 

The onslaught continued when at the 38:39 mark sophomore Bailey Cartwright got her 50G of the 2014 campaign on a beautiful right footed shot from about 12-yards out and she beat Hartle in the lower right foot corner.  We went to half 3-0 in favor of the top seeded Centurions and they picked up where they left off in half one.

Bailey Cartwright this time went bottom left hand side off her right foot to make it 4-0 at the 41:39 mark. Cartwright then cooled down on the goal scoring to let her teammates get onto to the score sheet by passing and not always taking the shot.

About 15 minutes after the 4th goal of the game(Cartwright’s 2nd) sophomore Kelli Rosensteel followed up her shot which deflected off the hands of Hartle and left footed it into the net. Then Hartle stood on her head at about the 63 minute mark making what was the save of the match on Cartwright from getting the hat trick only to be beat on a shot from Sydney Ward form about 22 yards out. That goal slipped through Hartle’s hand and it was all but over from that point.

Freedom was able to get on the board at the 66 minute mark when Linsey Kaufman took a well executed corner kick. The ball seemed to have a magnet in it as it went right toward Kaufman’s crown and she cleanly headed it into the back of the net. Bailey Cartwright after maybe convincing her dad, Coach Scott Cartwright, to go back into the game netted her hat trick goal at the 74:29 mark on a cross from Rosensteel.

Sarah Ward rounded out the scoring for the Centurions netting two goals in a 45 second span the first off a rebound from back up goalkeeper Kayla Weismantle. The next goal from Sarah Ward was a well struck ball inside the 18yd box from her left foot into the net at the 79:37 mark.

Greensburg Central Catholic captured their 3rd WPIAL crown in 4 years while the Freedom Bulldogs will make their first trip to PIAA’s going in as the 2 seed from District 7 and Greensburg Central the 1. There are three WPIAL qualifiers in the state tourney the third will be Shady Side Academy who the Bulldogs beat in the semis to gain the right to play today.

Tags: Freedom, Greensburg C.C.