Loughead's PK sends resilient Episcopal to PAISAA title - PA Prep Live

Loughead’s PK sends resilient
Episcopal to PAISAA title
EAST WHITELAND — Episcopal Academy senior Maddie Loughead took
the slow walk at Immaculata’s Draper Walsh Stadium Wednesday
night with a bandaged leg, a clear mind and fresh eyes.

The outside back sported a slight limp — “I tore my quad in
the summer,” Loughead off-handedly explained. But with the
gait of a hobbled gunslinger blowing into a frontier town,
Loughead knew she had a job to do in the fifth round of the
shootout.

                        Episcopal Academy’s    Maddie Loughead
                        celebrates after      converting her
                        penalty kick in the   shootout to earn
                        EA a 4-3 win over     Baldwin in the

Pennsylvania Independent Schools
                        Athletic Association final at
                        Immaculata University Wednesday. The
                        match finished 3-3 after extra time.
                        (Pete Bannan/Digital First Media)

“I really just tried to breathe as much as I could and not
think about it,” Loughead said. “I practiced my PKs, so I just
said, ‘do what you know how to do and don’t overthink it.’”

Loughead’s penalty kick settled a classic Pennsylvania
Independent Schools Athletic Association final, Episcopal
topping Baldwin, 4-3, in spot kicks after a scintillating
affair finished 3-3.

The shootout contained enough drama to sustain many a recap,
let alone the run of play that supplied two goals each from
Baldwin’s Gia Vicari and EA’s Olivia Dirks.

Allie Bush was the hero of the shootout, though. The sophomore
EA goalkeeper started it inauspiciously, with Vicari scoring
and Bush getting a piece of Lauren Bracken’s kick but the ball
sputtering over the line. When Lauren Cunningham sent her
effort wide in the third round, EA stared at a 3-2 deficit.

“I said, ‘you’re fine, shake it off. Allie will get it for
you,’” Loughead said of the conversation with her fellow
defender. “And there she came with two big saves.”

Bush picked her teammate up, even though her opposite number,
Simi Bleznak, stole the goalkeeping show in regulation. Bush
stood tall in the fourth round, denying a Relly Ladner kick
and allowing Dirks to even it up with enough pace for the
effort to power past the touch of a Bleznak glove.

Next stepped midfielder Alex Loomis, and Bush read it
correctly, diving to her right, so spot-on that she bodied the
ball away with her legs.

“My strategy is usually guessing,” Bush said. “For this one, I
saw their eyes. They were staring at the spot they were going
to take the PK, so I just followed their eyes.”

“As a sophomore, she’s just stepped up so much this year,”
Dirks said of Bush. “She acts older than she is, which is
great. And she’s really loud in the back, so I knew when PKs
came, she would be ready.”

 Oh my God Simi Bleznak with a triple save. Salvucci twice
 then Kuzemka. To OT, Baldwin and EA tied at 3
 pic.twitter.com/wLNDW84APO

 — Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) November 15, 2018

That left Loughead as the 10th and final shooter to bash her
kick into the side netting to Bleznak’s left.

All that drama transpired once the clock had stopped running.
The 90 minutes were no slouch, either.

Episcopal took the advantage seven minutes in when Dirks
scored, though the play was made by Anna Salvucci trapping a
long free kick by Cunningham and playing Dirks through the
lines.

 Dirks gets it right back!! Dirks the free kick. I heard it
 take a touch in the wall but not sure who. Either way, 2-all.
 45th. pic.twitter.com/VlDalNeQ0F

 — Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) November 14, 2018

Baldwin notched the next two tallies on a night when they
scored off three set pieces. Bush charged off her line but
could only flap at a corner kick in the 29th that fell onto
the head of Vivienne Evans to nod home on the doorstep.

Episcopal Academy goalie Allie Bush
                        makes a save on Baldwin’s Alex Loomis
                        in the fifth round of penalty kicks
                        in the Pennsylvania Independent
                        Schools  Athletic   Association
                        Championship at Immaculata University
                        Wednesday       evening.       (Pete
                        Bannan/Digital First Media)

Baldwin surged ahead three minutes past halftime. After three
straight EA corner kicks, Vicari embarked on an end-to-end
counter with Ladner and burst through the backline, leaving
Ali McHugh no recourse but to chop her down from behind for a
penalty kick and a yellow. Vicari slotted home the PK, giving
Baldwin a 2-1 lead and opening the floodgates of chaos.

Dirks wouldn’t let the deficit stand, evening the score within
two minutes. Her free kick from 24 yards out took a nick off
the wall, but it sailed into the net. EA nudged ahead in the
54th, Salvucci taking two immaculate touches in the box to
control a driven cross from Dirks and volleying home. That
Salvucci and Dirks, the pair of high-scoring seniors, had
their hands in each goal seems fitting in their final games.

“That’s how it usually happens,” Dirks said. “Whenever I

score, she’ll assist me and whenever she scores, I assist her.
She’s an awesome player, and I’ve been so lucky to play with
her these past four years.”

A comfortable result wasn’t in the cards, thanks to Vicari,
who skittered a free kick from 22 yards under the wall and
into the far bottom corner in the 72nd, a worm-burner with
purpose to knot it at 3.

As if that wasn’t enough, Episcopal got not one but three
chances to win it in the final 30 seconds. But Bleznak
produced fantastic saves rapid-fire, getting a hand to a
Salvucci shot, her body in front of Salvucci’s follow while
off her line and then retreating to nudge Bella Piselli’s
effort wide.

 Baldwin ties it!! Gia Vicari on the free kick. Not sure what
 the wall did here. 3-3. 8:04 left. pic.twitter.com/C5sQtxCxcq

 — Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) November 15, 2018

“Just kind of do anything I can to keep the ball out of the
net and get us to overtime,” Bleznak said. “There was only a
few seconds left so I knew that if I made those saves, we
would be headed into overtime and that’s where at that point
we wanted to be.”

So on the back of all that, how exactly does one regain their
composure for the extra session?

“We knew we    had to do whatever it took to keep pushing and
even if we     were tired, just give a little more and keep
pushing our     way through,” Dirks said. “We came out every
single time    with a ton of intensity and energy, and we all
were just so   hyped to keep going.”

“You just have to stay focused on the game,” Bleznak said.
“There’s a lot going on, but staying focused on what’s

happening on the field and playing together and playing for
each other.”

 Penalty Baldwin! Gia Vicari draws it off a counter with Relly
 Ladner and converts. Ali McHugh the foul and yellow.
 2-1 Baldwin in the 43rd pic.twitter.com/vNzvbaxSqJ

 — Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) November 14, 2018

EA controlled overtime, Dirks flashing a sharp-angle shot
wide, Cunningham lofting a free kick from 28 yards just over
the bar and Bleznak making the only save, her seventh.

That set the stage for PKs. Among the thoughts that Loughead
banished on the walk up were the past near-misses — the loss
in last year’s final to Springside Chestnut Hill, the setback
incurred as freshmen in the final to Germantown Academy, one
that Loughead watched with a broken ankle.

There would be no repeating that anguish, she made sure.

“When we were freshmen, we wanted to win so badly for the
seniors,” she said. “And seeing them lose the championship
game freshman year kind of took it to heart, and we’ve been
kind of with that since then. We made it to the semis
sophomore year and last year we were in the finals again, so
it was kind of like our time to finish what we started.”