Ritchie goal knocks off Greenville

FARMINGDALE – It wasn’t where Aarika Ritchie wanted the ball to go, but it was the result she was hoping for just the same.

The sophomore forward and the rest of her Lee Academy teammates had worked all week on keeping their shots low to try and thwart the reach of Greenville goalie Bethany Bartley, a tall and lithe athlete who also excels on the basketball court and on the track as a hurdler and high jumper.

After all that preparation, Ritchie had one main thing on her mind with 29 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s Class D state championship soccer game as she prepared to take a penalty kick: Shoot low.

Ritchie stepped to the ball and unleashed a hard kick to the right corner, but the ball got above her foot more than she wanted and it went high. Bartley, who was trying to read which direction she’d go, broke to her left, but even her outstretched hands failed to deflect the ball as it sailed into the uppermost right corner, just below the crossbar, and into the net for what would be the only goal of the game.

Lee’s 1-0 victory gave the Pandas their second state title in the last three years and capped a perfect 18-0 season.

“She’s tall, so I was trying to kick hard and low to a corner,” said Ritchie, who was awarded the kick after Greenville was whistled for tripping. “It didn’t really go where I wanted it to go, but it worked.”

It was the only one of 21 shots that got by Bartley, who made at least three leaping or sprawling highlight-reel saves.

“It’s pretty much the luck of the draw, but she placed it perfectly,” said Bartley, who made 16 saves. “I don’t know if she meant to or not, but it was a great shot. It’s pretty much untouchable if you place it up there and she didn’t give away which way she was going.”

Bartley’s Lakers finished the season 15-2 after being held to only four total shots, two of which were saved by senior goalie Jackie Moors.

Moors, who notched her fourth straight playoff shutout, 12th overall this season, and career 36th, said this title is even more meaningful to her as it comes in her final season and it came in the first year of the post-Shelby Pickering era.

“Shelby was an awesome player, but last year I think we depended a little bit too much on her and this year we really had to work to become a complete team,” said, Moors, who was converted to goalie during her sophomore season.

Another invaluable contribution came from Lee sophomore Kim Thurlow, who stuck to Lakers standout and leading scorer Hannah Breton like a DVD’s anti-theft packaging.

“Kim pretty much stopped her last year [in the east regional final], so we did the same thing,” said Lee coach Tom Pickering. “In the second half, I had the girls double-team [Breton] more and help Kim.”

The experience of guarding Greenville’s biggest offensive threat was a boon and a curse.

“It made it easier knowing her from last year, but it also made me more nervous since I knew how fast and determined she was,” Thurlow said. “I just looked at her stomach all the time because wherever it goes, she goes. I didn’t even worry about the ball most of the time.”

Breton had five breakout chances in the first half, but only got off two shots. In the second, she had two breakouts but couldn’t manage a single shot.

“They did a good job of cutting off the angles and tapping the ball out of my control,” Breton explained.