By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher ABSECON — The rain began falling with less than 10 minutes remaining in the Non-Public B South quarterfinal game featuring Holy Spirit and Rutgers Prep on Thursday. By that time, the host Spartans had already put a big damper on the Argonauts’ hopes of advancing to the next round of the state playoffs. Kelsie Salvati ripped home a direct kick from nearly 30 yards out early in the second half to snap a 1-1 tie, and Christine Conaghy scored a pretty goal later in the second half as Holy Spirit won 3-1 to advance to the sectional semifinals for the second straight year. Holy Spirit’s offense was sharp early on, as Kira McCully finished in the bottom right corner after collecting a through ball from Conaghy to put the Spartans up 1-0. Holy Spirit got a little disorganized, however, as the first half wore on, and the Argonauts evened things up on a goal by Andrea Gamboa. Gamboa took a shot from distance, and the ball took a much higher bounce than Spirit keeper Ayanna Jones anticipated, sailing over her head and rolling harmlessly into the back of the net. 
Christine Conaghy had a goal and an assist as Holy Spirit took care of Rutgers Prep 3-1 in the Non-Public B South quarterfinals on Thursday in Absecon. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) Jones redeemed herself in the second half, however, making several key saves to help Holy Spirit keep its two-goal advantage. “We told (Ayanna) to pick her head up, because she was down on herself,” Conaghy said. “She was very upset, but we just told her to keep her head up.” Salvati’s goal was the difference maker. She blasted the direct kick high and in the middle, a shot the Rutgers Prep keeper had no chance of stopping. “That changed the whole game. We were saying that the first goal that went in (in the second half) would change the whole mood of the game and will decide if we win or not,” Conaghy said. “If they had gotten that goal things would have been in their favor, but it really gave us the momentum.” “That got our composure back,” McCully said. “When they scored, we weren’t expecting that. In our heads, we were like, ‘we’re going to come in, win this game and put it away early.’ That kind of freaked us out, but Kelsie’s goal kind of got our composure back. After that, we just took control of the game.” 
Forward Kira McCully got the Spartans off to a good start by scoring an early goal, and also played an outstanding second half up top. Conaghy’s goal was impressive. She gathered a pass near the box, took one touch to the right and hammered home a shot over the keeper’s head to push the lead to 3-1. McCully said the Spartans (14-5) were familiar with Rutgers Prep (9-10-1), having played the Argonauts in the playoffs last year, and simply needed to get into the flow of the game — even if it did take longer than the Spartans would have liked. “Last year, we played them in our quarterfinal game, and we knocked them out. So we knew they were going to come out with a lot of intensity. They had a lot of desire to win this game,” McCully said. “Since we do have a young team with a lot of sophomores and freshmen, it’s the state playoffs and there were a lot of nerves there in the first half.” “We were nervous at first. We have a lot of young players, and this was their first state game. We definitely needed to get the nerves out, and we did in the second half,” Conaghy said. Holy Spirit, the No. 3 seed, advances to play No. 2 Wardlaw-Hartridge on Monday in the sectional semifinals. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Girls soccer: Strong second half puts Holy Spirit back in Non-Public B South semifinals
