All that Jazz: Archbishop Ryan senior goalie Jazmin Gonzalez’s jersey number matches her skills between the posts. Her 52 shutouts are most in school history, and she’s making a run at the state record of 58. The Ragdolls, who went 11–0 in league play, open their quest for a third straight Catholic League crown on Sunday.
On a cold and rainy afternoon in Bensalem, Jazmin Gonzalez was feeling generous.
Early in the second half of Archbishop Ryan’s non-league regular season finale, the Owls of Bensalem High School did what few have been able to do against Gonzalez and the Ragdolls this season: they scored a goal.
Ryan would rally to win this contest, tying the game with 54 seconds left in regulation and winning it 2–1 in double overtime, but that wasn’t the story on this day. No, that would be the fact that Gonzalez, the team’s senior goalkeeper, allowed one to pass beyond her normally dependable clutches.
What gives?
“Sometimes, mistakes happen,” she said. “But it’s definitely hard to let one by you when you’re not used to it. I definitely take every goal to heart.”
Even the greatest of goalies in every sport let one slip by here and there; after all, nobody’s flawless. But Gonzalez is about as close as can be to perfection, which is why it was so surprising to see the Ragdolls in a 1–0 hole. They simply aren’t used to it.
Some context: the Ragdolls were a perfect 11–0 in Catholic League play this season, not much of a surprise for a group that has barely lost en route to the last two league titles. But Gonzalez took it a step further in 2014, not allowing a single goal against Catholic League opponents stacked against the 55 tallies the team scored. The shutout feat was a first in the program’s history, and, when asked about the meaning of it in a larger context, longtime Ryan athletic director George Todt (who also coached the school’s boys soccer program for more than 40 years) said, “I would doubt it’s ever happened for the boys league, too. There have been very few undefeated teams, so not giving up one goal in the league is extremely rare.”
And that’s precisely the point. In a league so good, it’s almost unheard of to accomplish something so difficult, but that’s what Gonzalez and the Ragdolls did. In fact, the goal against Bensalem was only the third occasion all season in which the team didn’t post a shutout, the others being a 3–2 win over Gwynedd Mercy to open the season on Aug. 29 and a 3–2 defeat at the hands of Villa Joseph Marie on Sept. 27, Ryan’s only loss the entire season.
In an Oct. 6 win over Lansdale Catholic, Gonzalez broke the school record with her 51st shutout. Currently standing on 52, the Charleston Southern University signee has her sights set on the state record of 58, which will be attainable should Ryan win three league playoff games, the District 12 city title contest and three state playoff games. (The Ragdolls were ignominiously bounced from the state tournament in the first round each of the last two years, something Gonzalez and company aim to rectify in the coming weeks.)
“It means a lot to me, but I wouldn’t be able to get that record without my team,” she said. “I’m so blessed to play behind a defense this good. To come into this school and have the defense I do … they deserve all the credit. Those 52 shutouts is all of us working together.”
Gonzalez, a captain and four-year starter, has a unique relationship with the team’s all-state sweeper, Kaitlyn McFadden, who will play her college soccer at West Chester. The duo have been club teammates since they were 8 years old for the United German Hungarian Soccer Club and lean on one another to wreak havoc on opposing offenses. Gonzalez owns the shutout record, but it’s often McFadden and the back line that doesn’t allow the ball to get anywhere near the keeper.
“Coming into the same high school, she and I didn’t realize we could do such a crazy thing,” Gonzalez said of her relationship with McFadden. “But we work so hard on our defense, and we knew we had the girls to take advantage of the opportunity, especially this year. Every game, we try to get a shutout. It’s what’s expected, and the whole team knows it’s the goal.”
During an August preseason conversation with the Northeast Times, McFadden brashly prophesied that Ryan didn’t want to allow a goal all season, something her keeper quickly reinforced. That prognostication came half true, and, while seeming outlandish at the time, shows just how much confidence the duo has in each other.
“We don’t even carry another goalie on our roster … it’s her net,” head coach Ryan Haney said of his keeper. “Six to seven shutouts in a season is a good year for a goalie, so it’s obviously someone like her doesn’t come around too often. She’s grown and matured so much in her leadership and approach to the game, and that stuff she does is just uncoachable. She and (McFadden) stepped right in to start since day one and they changed the whole program, getting it back to where it was. These last three years have been remarkable for this program, and all the credit goes to those two.”
Not all that much has changed for Gonzalez over the years; after all, she’s never given up a lot of goals, so this unprecedented shutout streak isn’t that hard to believe. But Haney says that his keeper’s focus and determination have sharpened, and few things are harder to stop than a motivated senior who has done great things seeing the finish line in sight.
“As a coach, I just sit back and let her speak to the team, because that carries more weight than anything I say,” Haney said. “What she does is bring us together with her leadership and character. She challenges her teammates to be the best. She leads by example, and I have no doubt we’ll see the best of her in the coming weeks. She doesn’t take the game lightly; it’s very serious to her, and she’ll be the first to admit when she makes a mistake. There just haven’t been too many of them.”
Ryan (16–1 overall) will open up its quest for a third straight title on Sunday against an opponent still to be determined. It will be the curtain call for the greatest goalie in school history, and make no mistake about it: Gonzalez has something special prepared for her final act.”
“No girls team at Ryan has ever won three in a row, and we want that three-peat,” she said. “After that, we’re looking to Hershey (where the state championship is played). We’re focused. We’re pumped. We’re smart enough by now to know what we accomplished in the past doesn’t matter. It’s a whole new season now. Nothing is guaranteed.
“I love that pressure. To me, the best players always show why they’re the best in the hardest games. I’ve worked so hard for this, so I can’t let it go now during senior year. I want to show everyone that this is earned, not given. We earned the right to post those shutouts. We didn’t always play our best and we weren’t always the perfect team, but we’ve worked hard to do what we’ve done and given it our all.”
Not always perfect, but pretty close. Gonzalez made sure of that. ••
