Pearl River’s Marissa Scognamiglio took her time setting up a corner kick late in the Pirates home game Thursday against Clarkstown South when she heard a voice from the crowd yell out.
“Missy, look at the clock.”
Scognamiglio glanced up at the clock and saw just 48 seconds left in the game, which was tied at one. She booted the the ball from the left corner toward the far side of the net, right to Annie White, who headed it by the goalie to give Pearl River the 2-1 win.
“There was no one marking me and the ball was coming right at me,” White said. “I just had to jump.”
It was the second corner kick for the Pirates (2-1-1) in the game’s final minute.
“We like corners because we’ve got a couple kids who really do well on corners, so we want to shoot and we want to create corners because we’ll make them if we get them,” said Pearl River Head Coach Tim Peabody.
He added that he thinks White is the best on headers out of corner kicks on the team.
The first corner kick didn’t result in a goal, but did help set up Pearl River's second attempt and another crack at the goal.
“The first corner, I put it a little too far on top of the box and no one could really get to it,” Scognamiglio said. “But then, luckily, their sweeper kicked it out again.”
Peabody said he knew going into the game that scoring opportunities would be rare against Clarkstown South.
“We didn’t have many opportunities, but we cashed them in and that was the most important thing,” he said. “I knew we were going to get a limited amount, and we had to make them count.”
The game was tied at zero at the half and remained that way until Julianna Madigan scored with a bit more than 23 minutes to go. She received a cross pass around the middle of the field in Vikings (1-1) territory, out-ran a defender, cut left and beat the goalie.
“We were out of position on the first goal,” said Clarkstown South Head Coach Tom Rolston. “I had my player a little too far wide, playing a little more outside than we needed to, and just gave up tons of open space in the middle of the field.”
South scored its lone goal with 9:04 to go in the game when Carly Glaser took a pass on the left side and booted it by the goalie.
The Vikings had a good scoring opportunity earlier in the half, when Brianna McMahon dribbled into goalie box and took a shot from a few feet away from the goal. The shot was stopped, but the rebound bounced out in front of the net. South’s Anna Dow raced toward the ball and blasted another shot on goal, which was also saved.
