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Petitt scores three as Buena improves to 3-3 BUENA -- Before his girls soccer team stepped onto the field at Buena Regional Tuesday afternoon, Sacred Heart coach Gordon Bocher figured the best way to stay with the athletic, aggressive Chiefs was to come at them with an unorthodox strategy. Instead of going for the quick score, Bocher chose to place his top athlete and top scoring threat, Lindsay Stanewich, in the backfield to mark explosive Buena striker Alisa Petitt. And it worked. For about 90 seconds. Not because Petitt was a force early, but because the Chiefs had so many other weapons to utilize against the undermanned Lady Lions, who were playing without injured starting goalkeeper Barbara Smith. "No one came back to help (Stanewich)," said Bocher, who watched Buena roll to an 8-0 win in a Cape-Atlantic League National Conference matchup. "You just can't change the way you play your game." Sacred Heart (2-4) learned early. Sheena Hernandez fired a six-yarder over substitute keeper Sara Yampaglia, normally the squad's top defender, at the 38:38 mark of the first half. Five minutes later, Christa Yacovelli fed a streaking Krystle Jackson for the second tally. It was more than enough. Five different players would score for Buena. Hernandez finished with a pair. Petitt would get into the action at the 21:00 mark, when she took a pass from Andrea Jaworski in the box and danced around Stanewich, Jamielynn Cunningham and stopper Kelsey Schwegel and chipped it into the left side of the net. "All of our early games were hard," said Petitt, who has helped the Chiefs (4-3) rebound from a 1-3 start, "but it's paying off now." For Petitt, the countdown to 100 career goals continues. Her hat trick Tuesday brought her career total to 95. "I asked her at halftime how many goals she had," sweeper Allison Phillips said. "And she said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Yeah, right!' " The onslaught continued into the second half. Sacred Heart's best chances came on a pair of direct kicks, but Chiefs goalie Leah Giercyk faced only five shots the entire afternoon on her way to her third shutout in a row. Yampaglia also had a nice game in goal, as she was forced to make 25 saves. She stopped Petitt and Jaworski on point-blank shots at different points in the game, but Buena's continuous onslaught proved to be the difference.
OLMA gains an important Cape National win, 3-2 over Buena NEWFIELD -- Entering Thursday's game against Our Lady of Mercy Academy, the Buena Regional girls soccer team had outscored its past three opponents 21-0. The offense couldn't miss, and the defense wouldn't budge. But everything changed when the Chiefs and Villagers collided behind Edgarton Memorial School. Behind a defense that blanketed Buena's top scoring threat all afternoon, and a pair of key goals on a penalty kick by Jessica Woldow and a direct kick by Laura Bernardini, OLMA dropped Buena, 3-2, in a Cape-Atlantic League National Conference inter-division game. "I'm so elated right now," said Villagers coach Keith DiPrimio, whose National II team improved to 7-0. "We haven't been getting any respect from anybody in our league, and now, with us beating a quality team like this, I think we'll turn some heads." Buena nearly got on the board first with 15 minutes to go in the first half. Chiefs sweeper Alison Phillips threw the ball into the box, but striker Andrea Jaworski's turning volley went off the right post. "I think she was down on herself," Phillips said. "But it hit the post, and there was nothing she could have done." For a while, it looked as if nothing would go Buena's way. Five minutes after Jaworski's miss, Chiefs defender Hope Vandzura was called for tripping OLMA's Gwen Valentine in the box, setting up a penalty kick. Sweeper Jess Woldow dropped it into the lower-left corner of the goal to give the Villagers a 1-0 lead. Buena's striker Alisa Petitt finally broke through with five seconds to go in the half. Off a feed from Alicia Cocca, the senior wheeled around and dropped an 18-yard shot past keeper Jen Straub to tie it, 1-1. "That was such an awesome goal," Phillips said. "That wasn't even luck ... it was ability, because that's the kind of player (Petitt) is." OLMA nearly added took the lead at the 28:00 mark of the second half, when Angie Killeen chipped a shot over Buena keeper Leah Giercyk, but it hit the crossbar. Just a minute later, however, Bernardini was awarded a direct kick after Buena's Brooke Mitros was called for a push. Bernardini placed it perfectly, just over Giercyk's head, giving OLMA a 2-1 lead. "I actually thought it was going to go over (the crossbar)," said Bernardini, a junior. Killeen, who was given a yellow card in the first half for rough play, beat Giercyk on a loose ball for the game-winner with 20 minutes to go. "They were given a PK and a bad out-of-bounds call that led to a direct kick," Chiefs coach Tom Ruhl said. "Nothing went our way. Petitt got steamrolled about 100 times, and not a single call went her way." Even DiPrimio could be seen shaking his head on a few calls. Buena finally got some redemption with about a minute to go, when Cocca was awarded an indirect kick inside the box on a dangerous play call. She tapped it to Petitt, who fired it past a wall of OLMA defenders. But it was too little, too late.
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