Penalty Kicks Gives Delran the Win

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

By Vincent Lewis
SJSports Staff Writer

You hear it most of the time and it’s the reason most players work so hard to avoid it. When a game has to be decided by penalty kicks, it takes away from the defense and the goal keeper’s performance they had for two halves. Unfortunately it’s the only way to determine a winner of a game when it can’t be decided during the regulation and overtime periods. After Delran and Cinnaminson could not come up with the game winning kick during regulation, it was time for the shoot out session to begin. With the number one seeded Bears from Delran down 3-1 in penalty kicks to the Pirates, the home team would score the next four times to go ahead and defeat Cinnaminson and advance to the finals.

It has been best describe as a time when all eyes are on every movement made on the field. The penalty kick or even called the tie-breaking shootout, is that moment in time when what seems to be enormous space the goalie must defend against a single shot is kicked from just 12 yards away. When that ball is kicked, it only gives the goalie just a half-second to react to a ball being kicked from anywhere between 60 and 80 miles per hour. It is one of the hardest things to do in any sport. So when a keeper is able get a hand on the ball, celebrate it.

Delran had scored an apparent goal about ten minutes into this semi-final South Jersey Group 2 game but was called nullified due to an off sides penalty. But the Bears would march right back down the field and scored with 6:58 showing on the game clock when Mick Mangini found the back of the net. Cinnaminson’s Dan Korenyi would tie this game at the 23:38 mark of the second half and eventually send this game into overtime. During the extra period, the defenses highlighted the sessions despite the strong effort to avoid the shootout.

The first set of penalty kicks watched Kevin Luber scoring for Delran and Greg Zizik, Brian Martino and Korenyi score for the Pirates to take a 3-1 lead. Delran would have two shooters remaining and both Erny and Andrew Kroculick scored. With the Pirates remaining two shooters attempting to win this game, keeper Tyler Stakawicz came up with a big-time save and a shot off the crossbar sent this game into sudden death. Luber would score on the next attempt and Stakawicz deflected the shot and the Bears would attempt to repeat as champs.

Photos by Art Redd