Roman’s OT goal lifts Big Macs to first state title
Canon-McMillan coach David Derrico embraces players Addie Roman and Aideen O’Donoghue after the Big Macs won the first girls PIAA championship in school history. Roman scored the golden goal in overtime as Canon-McMillan defeated Central Bucks South, 1-0, for the title.
Canon-McMillan girls celebrate after receiving their trophy for winning the PIAA Quad-A soccer championship by defeating Central Bucks South, 1-0, in overtime.
Addie Roman (No. 11) beats Corinne McDonald (No. 15) to a header during PIAA Quad-A girls’ soccer championship action.
HERSHEY – At last, at long last, Canon-McMillan has a girls soccer state championship.
Sophomore Addie Roman buried a shot into the corner of the net with 4:25 remaining in the first overtime to give Canon-McMillan a 1-0 victory over Central Bucks South in the PIAA Class AAAA championship match Saturday evening at frigid Hersheypark Stadium.
The win caps a 22-1-1 season for Canon-McMillan, which becomes the second school from Washington County to win a girls soccer state title.
The game-winning play started when the Big Macs were awarded a throw-in deep in Central Bucks South territory. A spot-on throw-in enabled the ball to be maneuvered from senior Lexi Finney to junior Jaiden Williams, who noticed Roman unmarked at the top of the 18-yard box.
“My defender didn’t even see me,” Roman said. “I knew where Jaiden was going to pass the ball and I was able to take my time with it.”
Roman, who scored Canon-McMillan’s final two goals in a semifinal win over Cumberland Valley, aimed to the corner low and to the left of CBS goalkeeper Sophia Boggs, who had 16 shutouts on the season and had to make only three saves before Roman’s shot.
“It was the perfect ball,” Roman said. “I knew it was going in as soon as I kicked it. It couldn’t have gone any better, though it did seem like it was going to the net in slow-motion.”
Boggs made a diving attempt at a save but the ball was out of her reach and carried into the back of the net, triggering a wild on-field celebration by the Big Macs.
The match was played in terrible weather conditions. It started with the temperature in the low 60s and strong steady wind that swept from one end of the field to the other, making it difficult to score when going into the wind. Midway through the second half, rain began falling and by overtime, the rain had turned into hail. The temperature dropped 27 degrees during the match.
The overtime win was a pleasant reversal of fortune for Canon-McMillan, which was making its second appearance in the state final. The Big Macs lost to Central Bucks West in overtime in the 2014 Class AAA final.
“This game had a different feel to it, though,” said C-M goalkeeper Megan Virgin, who made eight saves including a pair of CBS shots that she tipped over the crossbar. “I wasn’t thinking that we were going to lose again in overtime.”
As Roman pointed out, overtime has been the Big Macs’ time.
“For two years, every time we’ve gone to overtime we haven’t lost,” Roman pointed out.
Canon-McMillan had to play moving into the wind in both the second half and overtime, which was a significant disadvantage.
“I can’t express just how bad the conditions were,” Canon-McMillan coach Dave Derrico said. “With the 30 mph wind, I told the kids to keep the ball on the ground and work to the middle.”
Roman’s goal was scored against the wind, a credit to the Big Macs’ never-give-up attitude that led to the throw-in deep in CBS’ end of the field.
“That’s the way we played all season,” Derrico said. “That’s their character. They haven’t quit. I told them we have to get a goal and get out of here because the weather is getting worse and worse.”
That was before the start of overtime, as rain that started falling during the second half began turning to hail.
“I played in one game that had worse weather conditions than this one, but that hail, it hurt your face when it hit you,” Roman admitted. “It hurt to run in that stuff. It was so cold it felt like swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.”
As the ice began accumulating on the stadium’s synthetic turf during the postgame medals ceremony, the soggy Big Macs couldn’t help but shiver. And they couldn’t have been happier about it.
“This means teams will have to take us seriously,” Roman said. “Going into the season, a state championship was our goal. We didn’t talk about it very often. We took the one-game-at-a-time approach, but we knew we wanted to be in Hershey and take home a gold trophy.”
Canon-McMillan played with the wind at its back in the first half but could not capitalize. The Big Macs’ best chances came off the foot of Sabrina Bryan. She had a shot from 13 yards in the middle of the field deflected wide by a CBS defender. Boggs made a stellar stop on a Bryan shot with less than nine minutes left before halftime.
Central Bucks South (19-6-1) generated several good scoring opportunities while working into the wind. Early in the game, Corinne McDonald took a crossing pass and chipped it over the crossbar. The Knights put a looping shot off the side of the net late in the first half, and moments later, Virgin had to make a leaping save, tipping a shot over the crossbar to keep the match scoreless.
The Knights also put a shot off the side of the net late in the first half.
CBS’ best scoring chance int he second half was thwarted when Virgin again tipped a shot over the crossbar.
“I thought both of those were going in,” Derrico said of the shots Virgin tipped away. “I thought they were going to score.”
Virgin wasn’t as pessimistic.
“I’m pretty tall, and I know I can touch the crossbar when I jump,” she explained. “What made the first one I tipped difficult was the wind stopped the ball. I had to adjust my jump and push it over the bar with one hand. The one in the second half, I was able to get two hands on it.”