Vineyard girls soccer advance after epic, historic shootout

The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School girls varsity soccer team advanced to the division two MIAA state quarterfinals on Wednesday after outlasting the North Reading High School Hornets 21-20 in the longest recorded sudden death penalty shootout in MIAA playoff history. 

The shoutout — which went into a sudden death after the two teams were even after five shots each — followed a defensive-heavy game where regulation ended in a 0 – 0 deadlock. 

“I’ve never seen anything like that. That was crazy,” said an enthusiastic head coach Matt Malowski in celebration after Wednesday’s game. 

Out of the gate in North Reading, the majority of play was confined to midfield and neither offense was able to consistently create scoring opportunities. As the match wore on, the Vineyarders and Hornets remained scoreless, but small cracks emerged in defensive back lines. With 6:32 left in the first half, the Hornets came close, striking the cross bar of the Vineyard net. After a scoreless end to the first, with 12 minutes left in the second half, Doyle stopped a point blank shot from a Hornets striker, and thirty seconds later, she denied another dangerous effort from the left side of the penalty box, deflecting the ball upward before securing the rebound.

Hopes were high for the Vineyard when Isla Story (No. 11) broke free for a one-on-one opportunity, but North Reading’s keeper rushed off the line and smothered the ball at Story’s feet, sending her toppling over the curled keeper. 

After two scoreless overtime halves, the two teams moved to a shootout to decide who would move on to the quarterfinals. After 20 rounds of close calls with some vital saves by Doyle to keep the Vineyard alive, the score was tied up at 20-20. Sydney Bruiguere (No. 9) for the Vineyard stepped up and buried one to make it 21-20. Then a North Reading shooter blasted the ball over the net, and the Vineyard team rushed Doyle to celebrate the victory. 

“We don’t have anything longer than that in our records,”  said Steve Dubzinski, assistant director of the MIAA, about the shootout. “As it stands right now, we think that is the longest shootout in MIAA State Tournament history.” 

The Vineyard girls will face the winner of Thursday’s matchup at 6 pm between Tewksbury Memorial High School and Belchertown High School. If the girls play Tewksbury it will be held on Saturday at McCarthy Stadium, and if they play Belchertown, the matchup is Saturday in Belchertown.

Also on Wednesday night, the Martha’s Vineyard boys varsity soccer team fell to a tough Chicopee High School. The Vineyarders tied the game up in the last minutes of the second half but fell to an early goal in overtime by Chicopee to send the Vineyarders home.