Boys' Soccer Pulls Out Overtime Win, Moves Into State Finals

Louis Pera had a very loud message for his Haddonfield soccer teammates Tuesday at the end of regulation in a scoreless tie.

"What are we doing?" Pera, a senior sweeper, yelled. "Let's go!"

The message was heard.

Alex Johnston booted in a rebound off a shot from P.K. Schlitt to net the sudden-death, goal 35 seconds into overtime in this Group 2 boys' soccer semifinal.

Jubilation ensued.

Johnston was mobbed by screaming teammates as a crowd of about 100 supporters cheered wildly. Middle Township sophomore goalie Steven Hand laid on the ground, motionless, for what seemed like forever in the euphoria of the moment, before his teammates scraped him up.

"The ball was bouncing around and my cousin, Robert Schlitt, was calling for it," P.K. Schlitt said. "Most of the defenders ran toward him, but I just tried to get the ball on goal."

Schlitt's shot bounced off Hand and caromed off to his right where Johnston banged it home.

"Any shot on the goal had a chance for a rebound, so I just followed the shot and I tapped it in," said Johnston, who leads the team with 14 goals this season.

Haddonfield, 18-2-1, moves on to host the championship game Friday against Haddon Heights, a team they lost to earlier this season. But the hard-fought game against No. 5-seed Middle Township was too fresh in their minds to drift away after the teams shook hands and the Panthers headed to their bus.

"We were just playing hard and I thought we could have put some balls in at the end of regulation," said Pera, a speedy sweeper who helped keep the Panthers off the board by beating them to every loose ball on the Bulldawgs' side of the field. "I just felt if we worked a little harder we could get one in. We did it in 35 seconds."

They made it look easy in the end. But getting to the end was the hard part.

The teams played to a scoreless tie through 80 minutes of regulation. Haddonfield controlled the pace for most of the game, keeping balls on the Panther's side of the field. The top-seeded Bulldawgs seemed to beat Middle, 15-6-1, to every loose ball and jump ball, and moved it down field with timely headers.

"They play a real direct style and for us to be successful we have to play a possession style," said Middle coach John Maher. "The direct style set the tone for the game. We're usually pretty good at winning balls in the air, but I think they won too many balls in the air today."

Johnston, the Bulldawgs junior forward, set the pace on offense. His motor never stopped running, beating players to balls and dribbling effectively through traffic. His up-tempo style earned him a disciplinary yellow card just in the third minute of play for bumping into the Panther's goalie after he stopped a shot.

Haddonfield's veteran coach Joe Falana yanked him out of the game after the incident, but he didn't sit out long.

"I tried to slow up," Johnston said. "I wasn't trying to hit the goalie at all. I was trying to get out of the way."

Falana also had strong words for the team at halftime.

"Are you determined, committed?" Falana yelled. "You guys look dead. It's the senior year for many of you. If you lose, you're done! You got an hour to shut them down and score a goal."

Players were visibly affected by unseasonable heat Tuesday. Falana said he thought the temperature was near 80 degrees on the field. It was quite a difference after playing in cooler weather for most of the season, he said.

Johnston said some players were wearing down. He said he was tiring, too. When asked what kept him going. He had a simple answer.

"I wanted to win."