CHELMSFORD – When games come down to penalty kicks, all goalies can do is guess.
Methuen High senior goalie Bella Medeiros guessed right one time, making a clutch save, while three of her teammates Courtnee Pickles, Kendall O’Hearn and Lily Harper all did their jobs by finding the back of the net, which was the difference in the No. 33 seed Rangers prevailing over No. 32 seed Chelmsford, 2-1, in a Division 1 preliminary round state tournament game played at Simonian Stadium.
The win pushes Methuen into the Round of 32, where it will travel to face No. 1 seed Natick with the date and time yet to be announced.
The two Merrimack Valley Conference rivals played to a pair of regular season ties, and were deadlocked at 1-1 after the 80 minutes of regulation and the two 10-minute sudden-death overtime periods. That led to the PK’s with the Rangers coming out on top, 3-1.
“Obviously there’s some strategy behind it,” said Medeiros, who made 14 saves on the night. “It’s very exhilarating of a moment but you really just have to dig deep, block everything out, stay within yourself, read the girl, her foot and her angle and just try to make the best guess that you can.”
After a scoreless first half, Methuen got on the board first coming at the ten minute mark of the second half. Bella Fiore came up the right sideline and picked the ball off a Lions’ player at midfield, before crossing it to her left to Pickles. She split two defenders and took a shot from 30 yards out which landed in the far right corner for her 22nd goal of the season.
With 9:59 left in the game, play was stopped for about 25 minutes when Chelmsford senior captain Nina Pestana went down with a neck injury. She was taken off the field by paramedics and appeared to be OK.
Just seven seconds after play resumed, Chelmsford tied it up as Kay Doherty took a direct kick about ten yards out and the ball landed on the foot of Julianna Lanzillo, who drive it home and eventually sent the game to the overtime frames.
“(The games was) definitely was up and down a bit and there were some scary moments, but it was a very evenly matched game,” said Medeiros. “Both teams were very competitive and that’s what made this game so good. We battled no matter what. Coming back from that long break took us a little bit to restart, but we got right back in it.”