Girls soccer: Ousouljoglou’s tiebreaker propels Bridgewater-Raritan past Westfield in North 2 Group IV quarters

BRIDGEWATER – If the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls soccer team is looking for silver linings after Saturday’s tough double-overtime loss to Ridge in the Somerset County Tournament final, it’s that the last time the Panthers dropped an overtime decision to the Red Devils in the county final – in 2013 – B-R wound up finishing its season by leaving The College of New Jersey with the NJSIAA Group IV championship trophy.

Thursday, in the North 2 Group IV quarterfinals against Union County elite Westfield, the Panthers certainly looked like a team capable of finishing this season the same way.

Senior Abby Ousouljoglou snapped a scoreless tie 12 minutes into the second half and Hayley Soriano added an insurance goal on a penalty kick just under four minutes later, and third-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan finished a decisive outing with a 2-0 victory over the sixth-seeded Blue Devils.

“We do talk about that team a lot, two years ago, and how we’re kind of in the same place now that we lost counties,” said Ousouljoglou, whose squad will visit second-seeded defending champ Scotch Plains-Fanwood at 2 p.m. Monday in the semifinals. “But Gerb (coach Chris Gerber) tells us we’re still a different team with different players, so we just want to focus on us. We just work hard every day.”

Ousouljoglou certainly showed her focus on what proved to be the game-winning goal after she had a would-be tally called back two minutes earlier on an offside call. But instead of getting down, the veteran kept her poise and made the most of her second chance when a loose ball rolled out to her near the top of the 18 that she nonchalantly skidded home.

“It’s just the mettle of a good senior leader,” Gerber said, “That’s what we expect out of all of them that have been there. Abby was on the field there two years ago at TCNJ, and that’s what we expect out of those kids, to drive us going forward. She never got rattled, she didn’t argue with the referee, she didn’t put her head down, she didn’t cry, she just got herself back up and put herself in the right place and was able to score. And that’s what we expect.”

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After an uneventful first half that saw Bridgewater-Raritan outshoot Westfield 4-0, including one on a blast from Cheyenna Cook that hit the right corner where the crossbar meets the post, the Panthers employed their new weapon, a 3-4-3 formation they’d installed early last week in preparation for the county final. The strategy didn’t do much against juggernaut Ridge, a team that had allowed just four goals all season, but against Westfield, it worked like a charm when B-R switched out of its standard 4-4-2 at intermission.

“We made a change at halftime and got a little more high press, and we felt that we could go after their backline a little bit,” Gerber said. “We just kept the ball in their half, kept the ball away from their No. 9 (University of Alabama commit Taylor Morgan) and just pressed them. We knew it was going to come.”

“We switched to the 3-4-3 and that gives a lot more opportunities,” Ousouljoglou said. “After we got the first one, like Gerb said, we’re going to get another goal, so it’s definitely nice to have a good lead for most of the second half. I definitely think we’ve settled into it (the formation) now. It really works. I really like it.”

After Soraino made it 2-0 on her PK, a chance generated when Westfield was whistled for a handball in the box, the vaunted Panthers defense did the rest, holding the Blue Devils to just two shots on goal for the game and just six total shots.

“We’ve been blessed always having that (defensive) unit,” said Gerber, who moved Cook up as a holding midfielder and sliding Jenna Chong into the center of the backline after the formation shift at half. “It’s the passing on of the torch for those kids, and they take great pride in it. The backline just always holds strong and it’s a great comfort level. And that’s why we can become more offensive when we need to. When we need the goal we can pull and weaken our defense because they are so strong.”

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Westfield’s best chance to get out to a lead came early in the first half where it was able to generate a few runs from Morgan, but once Bridgewater-Raritan pushed into more of an attacking mode, Westfield coach Alex Schmidt felt it negated his team’s advantage.

“I thought for the first 20 minutes we had control and the second 20 minutes they had control,” Schmidt said. “Coming out after halftime, the first 15 minutes of the second half, they kind of swallowed us up in the middle. And then pressure, pressure, pressure led to a goal. We just couldn’t get out of our own end. When you’re playing away and at their place, that’s all it took.”

Still, Thursday’s setback marks the end of a resurgent season for Westfield, which shook off two straight disappointing and injury-riddled campaigns to return to prominence as one of the state’s elite programs. And with all but one starter due to return, the hope is for even better things next year.

“I’m definitely proud of the girls,” said Schmidt, whose team finishes 11-5-2, including a trip to the Union County Tournament final. “I think they took to learning well and had a really good growth mindset this year. I thought we played our best soccer in the second half of the year.”

Staff writer Simeon Pincus can be reached at CNGirlsSoccer@aol.com and on Twitter @SimeonPincus