Girls Soccer: Haverford finally wins on Murphy’s header in OT

HAVERFORD >> As the ball bounded off Ali Murphy’s head Tuesday night, the sophomore didn’t need to see where the shot landed. Everyone else on the field at Haverford High’s A.G. Cornog Stadium was transfixed by the looping trajectory, arcing gently toward an open goal. But Murphy was already looking for a teammate to hug in celebration. The Haverford winger knew she had headed it true the moment she connected on Grace Drames’ cross — and a moment before she absorbed a collision with a West Chester Rustin defender and goalie Nicole Cousens — as the Fords earned a 2-1 win in overtime of the opening round of the District 1 Class 4A soccer tournament.

“Right when I headed it, I knew it was going in,” Murphy said. “So I just turned around and ran toward everyone on my team and hugged them all.

”The victory moves the No. 13 Fords (15-3-1) to the second round Thursday against No. 4 Conestoga, which beat the Fords 2-1 in their regular season meeting. It’s also, according to coach Alexandra Hill, the program’s first postseason win, at least in recent memory.

It seems fitting that a defender contributed to the winner on a team that Tuesday allowed just its seventh goal of the season. The left back Drames, after a throw-in was knocked back into her path, lofted a high-arcing cross to the far post in the 90th minute. It took a bounce in the box, the cardinal sin of defending, and fell back to earth upon the waiting head of Murphy. The winger hurled herself at the ball, and with Cousens charging off her line a hair late, Murphy had plenty to shoot for on a ball that hit over the line and hopped up to tickle the netting, setting off a stampede of jacketed joy from the bench.

“Usually we work on diagonal balls in practice, so when Grace hit it as a back defender, I knew it was going to go towards me and I just headed it in,” Murphy said. “I knew the goalie was coming out so she was going to leave the goal open so I had to head it over her.”

“I saw Ali running in, and I know she’s good with her head, so I was counting on her to just finish that and she did,” Drames said. “I was happy that she did.”

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