Keira Levengood rescues Wilson girls in district soccer opener
By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports senior correspondent
They were 45 seconds away from tears, from what ifs, from exiting the playoffs far sooner than they expected. Wilson’s girls soccer players needed a goal. A simple task, it seemed, for a team that already scored 93 of them.
Only nothing is simple while staring at elimination. The Bulldogs were fighting panic and fear. Their 20-minute search for the equalizer was down to the final minute and even the most optimistic soul was losing hope.
Then Keira Levengood found the goal.
“That was our last chance to tie it,” Levengood said. “It just came right to me. I was trying to do anything I could to get something on the ball.”
Levengood rescued the Berks champions at the end of regulation. Natalee Vicari finished it 4:16 into overtime. Third-seeded Wilson outlasted No. 14 Cedar Crest 3-2 in the District 3 Class 4A first round Tuesday night at Gurski Stadium.
Wilson (20-1-1) will host No. 6 Lower Dauphin, which defeated 11th-seeded Gov. Mifflin 2-1 in overtime, in the quarterfinals Saturday at a time to be determined.
There’s no agony quite like trying to score the tying goal in the closing minutes of a postseason game. No other sport offers such an unrelenting countdown to potential defeat. The clock never stops. It’s so easy to hurry and so hard to execute.
Players can feel it.
“It’s definitely nerve-racking,” center back Kelsy Moschak said. “You just want to scream your head off. I was so scared that it was the last seconds of our season.”
Coaches feel it in a different way.
“You’re absolutely helpless and you’re just begging,” Wilson coach Tim Fick said. “You see what they need to do. You see where they need to go. But when you’re on the field you don’t see it. You’ve got some tunnel vision and it’s hard to keep your composure.”
Levengood’s fingerprints were all over the last-minute goal. The senior midfielder is the one who drew the foul to give Wilson a free kick. She was the one who redirected Elizabeth Estrada’s service off the crossbar. She was the one who headed home the rebound.
Three plays. Take any one of them away and the Bulldogs are turning in their uniforms.
“Usually when I’m back there I always count on her to make it in,” Moschak said of Levengood. “She’s always gotten her head on the ball no matter what. She somehow pulls through.”
Moschak, a key part of a defense that also features Kylie Dries, Emmi McLain and Kaleigh Wilwerth, limped around for nearly 85 minutes because of a sore left leg. She refused to sit out. She couldn’t miss an elimination game.
After Wilson’s players were granted a reprieve, they were unstoppable in overtime. Estrada made a slick pass that sprung Vicari on a breakaway. The striker’s 30th goal was golden.
Vicari is arguably the league’s best player. No one is faster on the ball and no one exudes such an unwavering calm. Once that chance was on her foot, there was no chance she was going to miss.
Wilson was five days removed from a hard-fought overtime win against Wyomissing in the county final. Although a championship hangover was a concern, the Bulldogs were in good shape entering halftime with a 1-0 lead.
Cedar Crest (9-7-3) scored twice in a 14-minute stretch of the second half. Alaina Miller and Abrielle Miller put the Falcons ahead 2-1 with 21:30 left. Wilson chased that deficit until it nearly ran out of time.
“We talk about life lessons,” Fick said. “That would have been a big life lesson. Every minute, every second of whatever you’re doing you’ve got to give it your all. We just went into a little lull. It’s not that they didn’t work hard. They weren’t focused on their work the way they normally are.”
Wilson avoided its first loss since Sept. 11 and moved within one win of clinching a PIAA berth. Down to their last chance, their last hope, the Bulldogs escaped.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Moschak said. “I wish I could replay it over and over again.”
