Freshman goalie steps to make pivotal save for Viking girls in PK round

Montville - East Lyme freshman Alison Christensen played in exactly one varsity game prior to Friday night's Eastern Connecticut Conference girls' soccer championship game.

One.

And then there she was, accepting Most Valuable Player honors while her dad, Paul, coach of the East Lyme boys' team getting ready to play in the second half of the evening's doubleheader, stood on the sideline at Montville High School wiping tears from his eyes.

The fifth-seeded East Lyme girls, swept by ECC Large Division champion Woodstock Academy during the regular season, topped the No. 2-seeded Centaurs in penalty kicks to win its second straight championship. Senior Meredith Moore scored the deciding penalty kick for East Lyme, which won the round 4-3, as Christensen saved one Woodstock kick and another one hit the crossbar.

Christensen came on with 10 minutes, 47 seconds left in the first half when starter Gabby Fiengo was taken to the hospital after a collision with Woodstock's Emily Becher.

"How much pressure is that putting on her?" asked Moore of Christensen, who played mainly for the freshman team before being called up to the varsity. "But once she had that first ball come into her hands (in regulation), she was calm."

"I had a mini-heart attack," said Christensen of entering the game. "I just feel so bad for (Fiengo). She's really nice. (The team said) that we believe in you, we love you. … I just blocked everything out (during penalty kicks) and pretended it was practice."

While she pretended it was practice, Moore, East Lyme's only returning senior from last year's team which was undefeated into the state semifinals, said she was just pretending to pass the ball to an invisible teammate in the corner of the goal.

"It's impossible for the goalie to stop it if you just pass it to the corner," she said.

With the game tied 2-2 after regulation and two 10-minute overtimes, Woodstock's Elaina Becher and Sydney Trahan matched penalty kicks with East Lyme's Megan Holt and Samantha Lee through the first two rounds.

Christensen stopped the next kick and East Lyme's Isabelle Moore scored to give the Vikings a 3-2 edge, putting the pressure on Woodstock to make the remainder of their kicks. The Centaurs next kick was off the crossbar, but East Lyme missed, as well, keeping it 3-2.

Emily Becher drew Woodstock's final kick and crushed a shot to the left side of the goal that tied the round at 3-3, before Meredith Moore rolled a deliberate shot to the left corner and clinched the win.

East Lyme (16-3) beat top-seeded St. Bernard 2-1 in the semifinals Wednesday to get to its third matchup of the year against Woodstock. The Centaurs topped East Lyme 3-1 on Sept. 25 and 3-2 in overtime on Oct. 17.

East Lyme coach Rachel Redding credited her team's defense, including sophomore Haley Ashton, for containing Woodstock's main weapon, Emily Becher, even though Becher scored twice. The Vikings' entire backfield graduated following last season's special run.

"We weren't undefeated this year, but almost," Redding said. "I'm so proud of my girls. They work so hard every day. They wanted it really bad."

East Lyme led 1-0 on a goal by Lee, who was there for a rebound off Woodstock goalie Annabel Shackett and put it into the left side of the goal. The tying goal by Emily Becher came during the collision with Fiengo, with the ball rolling into the net as the two were still lying on the turf.

East Lyme then took a 2-1 lead at halftime on a goal by Theresa Durkee with 7:07 to play, as Durkee leapt above the rest of the pack to head a ball past Shackett.

Becher's game-tying goal came with 28:25 to go in the second half, but Christensen consistently plucked the ball out of traffic and sent it back to midfield numerous times during the remainder of the game to force penalty kicks.

v.fulkerson@theday.com