Kaitlyn McFadden was just about the last person on anyone’s list to score the game-winning goal and send Archbishop Ryan to its third straight Catholic League girls soccer championship game.
But in a strange way it almost made sense, because early circumstances proved that Thursday night’s semifinal contest against Little Flower would be unlike any of the other 17 wins the Ragdolls had tallied this season.
McFadden, Ryan’s feared All-Catholic and All-State sweeper, is the quarterback of the team’s defense. It’s her job to prevent goals, not score them. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and in a 1–1 game in double overtime with the possibility of penalty kicks looming, it was all hands on deck for the Ragdolls.
So, on a corner kick three minutes into the second OT, McFadden crept up toward the box from the defensive line to add help, to be an extra body in the goalmouth in case the ball found her.
It did. Junior forward Jules Blank, who had tied the game at 1 shortly before halftime after Little Flower had taken a stunning 1–0 lead early, booted a corner kick into the box from the far side of the field at Ryan. In a mad scramble to the ball, it first found the foot of junior Erin McIntyre, who, instead of taking her own shot, casually flicked the ball left.
There waiting to deposit it into the back of an open net was McFadden, whose first goal of the 2014 season could not have come at a better time.
“Personally, I don’t even remember anything after the goal,” said McFadden, who ran a few yards away from the net, did a celebration tumble on to the turf and was mobbed by her teammates. “I think I just fell down. It’s an awesome feeling, especially it being my senior year. I just wanted to give it my all so that I can seize these types of moments forever.”
McFadden was understandably frustrated with how the game began. Little Flower sophomore forward Cailey Plath scored five minutes into the game, beating the Ryan back line and senior goalie Jazmin Gonzalez, who has 53 career shutouts and had not allowed a goal to a Catholic League opponent all season. (Ryan had beaten Little Flower 4–0 back in the regular season.)
Still, even in an unfamiliar situation, the Ragdolls never flinched or panicked.
“We’ve been playing together so long, and we’re always connected and never give up on each other,” said McFadden, who will play her collegiate soccer at West Chester next fall. “We have great heart, which is why we’re so good. We never give up. We kept focusing and didn’t change our style of play because we were down.”
The win set up a rematch of last year’s title game against familiar foe Archbishop Wood on Sunday (1 p.m., at Ryan), who dispatched Lansdale Catholic 1–0 in the other semifinal game. Ryan (18–1) beat Wood (14–5–1) in double overtime in that game last year, the Ragdolls’ second consecutive league crown. On Sunday, they’ll try to become the first team in program history to win three straight titles.
“Playing Wood is definitely my favorite,” McFadden said. “We haven’t played them since the first game of the Catholic League season (a 2–0 Ryan win back on Sept. 5), so we’re both different teams now. It’s a rematch from last year, so we know it’s going to be exciting. We just have to focus and try not to give up an early goal again, because we know they’re going to come out fired up.”
