By STEVE SINISKI
After not only two overtime sessions but two additional sudden death periods, the Bruins were still locked in a 2-2 tie with Garden City last Friday.
But one play would not decide who advanced to face No. 2-seeded South Side on Mon., Oct. 28 in the second round of the Nassau Class A playoff tournament.
Instead, with all other options exhausted, it was time for the teams to square off in a round of penalty kicks, where each team selected five shooters and alternated attempts at the other's goaltender. The team that converted the most kicks would move on to the second round.
The Bruins won the toss and elected to lead off.
Monica Sheiner missed the first attempt, but Baldwin goaltender Jessica Stegmann, who turned back 15 shots during the actual game, kept it even. Then the Bruins turned up the heat and turned back Garden City. Jillian Grimm drilled her shot home and Garden City followed with a goal of its own, but Liz Dillon and eighth-grader Kelly O'Connor both tallied for Baldwin, and only one Garden City shot got by Stegmann.
Advantage: Bruins
A goal by Baldwin's fifth shooter, Iris Boci, would end the game, a miss would give Garden City an opportunity to tie and push the game to a second round of penalty kicks.
Suffice to say, Boci ended the suspense when she put home a shot in the inside corner of the net giving Baldwin the win.
"The last time [I was involved in a game this exciting] was back in 1988 when we lost in the Long Island Championship Game to Sachem," Baldwin coach Don Schreier said when relating how uncommon an ending Baldwin found itself in.
And contrary to popular belief, choosing shooters isn't always a matter of picking the team's top goal scorers. It takes a different type of mentality, not unlike that of a great free-throw shooter in basketball or a field-goal kicker in football to be successful inside the penalty box. Being alone with the weight of the game on the line can be quite an unnerving experience.
But through reps in practice, Schreier had his group of shooters decided, and after a strong week of practice, added O'Connor to the unit. "We practiced the shootout all week and charted what the girls did. We made our selections based on what the girls had done.," said Schreier.
The shooter holds all the cards, and in most cases, the pressure, with such an open net in front. So how does a goaltender prepare?
"It's just a question of reading where the shooter goes," Schreier said. "If you guess right you may get lucky [and get a hand on it]. The odds of scoring are much greater than not scoring, so it really puts the pressure on the shooter."
After battling to a 0-0 tie during regulation, Garden City got on the board with a goal four minutes into the first overtime. The Bruins countered with two goals by Erika Myrill in a span of two minutes during the second session -- her sixth and seventh in the last five games -- to forge ahead, 2-1. But on an indirect kick with just 12 seconds to play, Garden City punched the ball over the Bruins wall, and it tipped off Stegmann and the underside of the crossbar, dropping behind the goalline.
"We only gave Garden City one chance in double overtime," Schreier said of his defense tightening up. "We only made one change on defense, and that was moving O'Connor from outside back to stopper and sliding Lianna Cuomo to outside back."
With a win over South Side, the Bruins would advance to the third round of the Class A playoffs with the game set for Fri. Nov. 1, at 3 p.m.
