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Stunning loss to Geibel denies Monessen girls soccer long-awaited playoff berth

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MONESSEN – Playing in the program’s biggest match in 11 years, Monessen High School’s girl soccer team came up short Monday in a Section 2-A match against Geibel Catholic, losing to the Gators, 3-2.

A win would have earned Monessen (6-10-1, 3-8-1) its first WPIAL playoff berth since 2006, but the Greyhounds played without that extra spark and will miss the postseason for the 11th straight year.

Monessen assistant coach Sam Perry shared his team’s disappointment.

“I don’t think the girls realize what they just lost,” he said. “You get a chance like that, you have to come and play.”

Monessen outshot Geibel (1-11-2, 1-9-2) by a 12-5 margin but the Gators made the most of their opportunities to get their first win.

“We had opportunities but didn’t take advantage,” Perry said. “We weren’t in the right place at the right time and when we were, we didn’t finish.”

Grace Goodwin gave Geibel a 1-0 lead with 17:38 to play in the first half off of a pass from Monica Kolencik, but Monessen tied the match with 5:24 left in the half when Joelle Robinson scored an unassisted goal.

The 1-1 score stood into the second half, and Natalia Holmes gave Monessen a one-goal lead with 27:56 to play off of a Robinson assist.

Instead of pushing the throttle to put the match away and earn a playoff berth, Monessen seemed to go through the motions and it cost the Greyhounds a postseason berth.

“When you blow a game like that, especially against a team that didn’t win a game all season, it hurts,” Perry said. “It is going to sting the seniors for a long time.”

Goodwin tied the score at 2-2 with 19:15 remaining off of an Ava Fetsko assist, and concluded her first-career hat trick off of a pass from Nina Alvarez for the game-winner with 13:35 to play.

It wasn’t until the last minute that the Greyhounds seemed to sense that it needed to tie the match and send it to overtime.

Despite sending all 11 players into the Geibel goalie box for the last 30 seconds, Monessen could not tie get the needed goal and its postseason hopes ended with the final horn.

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