Hampshire denies Burlington Central
Beating Burlington Central on Senior Night. It doesn’t get much better for Hampshire.
The Whip-Purs kept Burlington Central from clinching a share of the Big Northern East girls soccer title with a 3-1 victory in Hampshire Tuesday night.
Alex Zeller scored twice within 2 minutes midway through the second half to break open a scoreless tie and send the Rockets into a must-win game Thursday against Marengo.
“We kept them from being undefeated,” said Hampshire coach Patrick O’Brien. “We went undefeated the last two years. We didn’t want someone to follow up the next year and do that.”
Michelle Fowler scored the lone goal for the Rockets. Natalie Starrenburg also scored for Hampshire.
“I think its pretty cool that on Senior Night we beat Burlington,” said Zeller. “We’ve been working pretty much the whole year to win most of our games. We didn’t win the conference, but beating Burlington was pretty good.”
Hampshire dominated during a scoreless first half, playing most of the first 40 minutes in the Rockets’ end. A diving save by Caitlin Solberg on a shot by Helena Van Eck late in the half kept the game scoreless.
Then, in the 54th minute, Zeller connected on a long shot from the middle.
“The whole game we were telling each other to shoot from far out, so I got the ball and shot it,” said Zeller. “At first I thought it was going over (the net), but it ended up going in, and I was happy.”
Two minutes later, following a corner kick by her sister, Emily Zeller, Alex Zeller pounced on a loose ball during a scrum in front of the net and knocked it in.
Fowler got the Rockets on the board with a long shot on the ground with just under 6 minutes to play. That gave the Rockets some momentum, not to mention a chance to tie the game in the final minutes.
But Starrenburg answered for Hampshire in the final half-minute, scoring from the left side to restore the 2-goal advantage.
“I thought Bailey Panjkovich played a very good game for us,” said Central coach Mike Gecan. “I thought their number 4 (Alex Zeller) was amazing.”
Alex Dumoulin was solid in the net for Hampshire, pitching a shutout for nearly 75 minutes.