By Chris Trujillo
Herald Writer
AUBURN – It was just a matter of time until Archbishop Murphy’s Kat Taylor found the matchup she’d been seeking, the kind standout midfielders crave and usually exploit.
Taylor did just that, beating Brewster goalkeeper Ashleigh Gamble one-on-one to lead Archbishop Murphy to a 3-1 victory Saturday and third place at the A/B state tournament at Auburn Memorial Stadium.
With the score tied at one, Taylor gathered in a pass from Caitlin Warnock, side-stepped Brewster’s last defender, drove in a few yards and fired a low liner past Gamble with less than six minutes remaining in the game.
Two minutes after scoring her 23rd goal of the season, Taylor assisted on the team’s third goal of the day after a shot she fired ricocheted off Megan Wolff’s hip and bounced past Gamble.
“Kat shot from the side and it hit off my hip and went in,” said Wolff, who recorded her fourth goal of the season. “This was great. It was our goal to come out this season and have fun, and we did.”
After being held shot-less in the first half, the Brewster Bears took advantage of their first opportunity three minutes into the second half. From a difficult left-side angle, Rachel Crane kicked in the tying goal with a high shot to the right corner.
“I am just amazed how they hung in,” Archbishop Murphy coach Pat Jack said. “They were playing with no substitutes. They must have been exhausted.”
Michelle Linscott knocked in a loose ball following a Casey Hammond corner kick at the 32nd minute to give the Wildcats a 1-0 halftime lead. Archbishop Murphy’s lone score, which came on its fourth corner kick of the first half, snapped a 100-minute scoring drought stretching back to the first round of the state tournament.
The Wildcats nearly took a two-goal lead six minutes later, but Bethany Jensen’s point-range shot from 10 feet out sailed into the arms of the Brewster goalkeeper.
Defensively, Archbishop Murphy prevented Brewster from entering its territory for nearly 35 minutes in the first half.
“It is great being here,” Jack said. “We’ve been here before. We’re a young team, we’ll be here again.”
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