BRATTLEBORO — What's more agonizing than losing a soccer game on penalty kicks? How about having to go to a second round of penalty kicks.
That's how the Brattleboro Colonels' season ended last Thursday, losing in a penalty kick shootout, 3-2, to the South Burlington Rebels in their first round Division I girls soccer playoff game at Tenney Field.
After playing to a 1-1 tie in regulation and after playing 30 minutes of scoreless overtime, the No. 7 Colonels and the No. 10 Rebels had to decide this closely played match on penalty kicks.
For the Colonels' goalkeeper, junior Maddie Hawes, it was her first time facing the most gut-wrenching moment in soccer. She rose to the occasion, making two big stops. Halle Lange and Kara Piergentili buried their kicks and the first round of kicks ended in a 2-2 tie.
So, it went to the second round, only now, the first team that scored would win. South Burlington goalkeeper Amy Simedinger, who also made two nifty saves in the first round of penalty kicks, stopped Lange's second try.
Jen Arnold, who scored in the first round, was up next and beat Hawes with a drive to the left post to win the game.
Brattleboro showed considerable grit to take the match to penalty kicks. Playing into a stiff wind in the first half, the Colonels were under constant attack by the Rebels. They were outshot 8-2, but the Colonels led 1-0 at the half on a quick strike from Taylor Kerlow in the 25th minute.
The Colonels had the wind in the second half, but it was the Rebels who got the equalizer as Sarah Shiman got behind the defense and scored. Both teams had scoring chances in the overtime, but Hawes and Simedinger stood fast.
Brattleboro ended its season at 7-6-2. It was the final game for seniors Kerylow, Erin LeBlanc, Ariel Kane, Kelsey Patterson, Ashley Watson, Lauren Mabie, Maddi Shaw, Caitlyn Wood and Candis Field.
The story would normally end here, except for an interesting development that came up on Friday. Brattleboro coach Edwin de Bruijn learned that the referees had erred in immediately going to a sudden-death round of penalty kicks and also erred in letting the same shooters that participated in the first round kick again in the second round.
De Bruijn had no comment about the officiating slip-up. As far as he was concerned, the outcome was just.
“It was a hard game for us to lose, but the truth is that South Burlington was the better team,” he said. “They controlled the play and had more chances to score than we did.”