Brieanna Carroll, right, of Pusan American and Alyssa Kopp of Osan American battle for the ball during Monday's round-robin play. Carroll leads the Pacific with 23 goals. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Brieanna Carroll, right, of Pusan American and Alyssa Kopp of Osan American battle for the ball during Monday's round-robin play. Carroll leads the Pacific with 23 goals. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Kristine Meany (15) of Pusan American and Elise Sanders of Osan American fight it out for possession of the ball during Monday's round-robin play. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
(Monday's game summaries at end of story.)
IWAKUNI MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, Japan — When it counted most, Osan American’s Sharon Kroening got the better of Pusan’s Brieanna Carroll
Kroening scored a goal and assisted on another to lead the Cougars past the Panthers 2-0 on Monday in the Far East High School Girls Class A Soccer Tournament.
Carroll maintained her Far East goal-scoring lead as each player tallied three times in the three round-robin games. Carroll has 23 goals on the season to Kroening’s 19.
“She’s a very good player,” Kroening said of Carroll. “I had set a goal that I would get 27 by the end of the season, but I don't think that’s going to happen.”
Osan earned the top seed entering the two-day double-elimination playoffs that began Tuesday.
Monday’s game was the second matchup between the teams this season. Carroll scored in the earlier contest and earned Pusan a tie, and Osan seemed to have learned from that meeting.
“It’s the game I’ve been worrying about,” said Kroening, noting that the teams tied 1-1 in their first meeting of the season March 15 at Camp Hialeah in Pusan, South Korea. “We have competition with them.”
The Cougars pinned a defender to Carroll the entire match — Cami Clampitt, a veteran of Osan’s title team last year.
“She’s very fast, she can keep up with her and she’s experienced on offense and defense,” Kroening said of Clampitt.
While the Cougars lost two of their last three matches and entered Far East at 9-3-2, they benefitted from playing against large-school competition in the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference tournament a week earlier. Pusan faced no large schools this season.
“Playing against the bigger schools, that made us more aggressive,” Kroening said. “We’ve had a lot more practice, we work better as a team, we talk more and over the season we’ve developed better team skills.”
Kroening assisted on the game’s opening goal, scored by fellow sophomore Priscilla Umemoto in the 10th minute, then converted a rebound in front in the 44th minute to ensure the victory. Goalkeeper Jacquelin Babcock helped make the goals stand up with five saves.
And Carroll said Pusan had some other disadvantages Monday that the Panthers weren’t facing the last time the teams played.
“None of us were injured. We were all healthy. We hadn’t just played in a KAIAC tournament and we hadn’t just stepped off the plane,” Carroll said of Pusan’s hectic schedule leading up to the tournament.
With the tournament playoffs double-elimination this year, rather than last year’s single-elimination, the Cougars’ victory celebration Monday was tempered by the knowledge that they might have to face Pusan twice, perhaps three times, in order to keep their title.
“Expect much more competition later in the week,” Kroening said.
Far East Class A Soccer Tournament
(Jump ahead to Class AA)
Monday’s summaries
Osan American 2, Pusan American 0
Osan American 1 1—2
Pusan American 0 0—0
First half: Osan—Priscilla Umemoto (1) (Sharon Kroening), 10th minute. Second half: Osan—Sharon Kroening (1) (unassisted), 44th minute
Taegu American 0, Matthew C. Perry 0
Taegu American 0 0—0
Matthew C. Perry 0 0—0
Osan American 5, Matthew C. Perry 0
Osan American 3 2—5
Matthew C. Perry 0 0—0
First half: Osan—Sharon Kroening (2) (Priscilla Umemoto), 10th minute. Osan—Jennifer Gates (1) (Cami Clampitt), 18th minute. Osan—Cami Clampitt (1) (Elise Sanders), 23rd minute. Second half: Osan—Jennifer Gates (2) (Sharon Kroening), 35th minute. Osan—Maria Devin (1) (penalty kick), 59th minute
Pusan American 2, Taegu American 0
Pusan American 2 0—0
Taegu American 0 0—0
First half: Pusan—Brieanna Carroll (1) (Channing Johnson, indirect kick), 17th minute. Pusan—Brieanna Carroll (2) (unassisted), 23rd minute.
Pusan American 4, Matthew C. Perry 2
Pusan American 2 2—4
Matthew C. Perry 1 1—2
First half: Pusan—Channing Johnson (1) (Valentina Guzman), 1st minute. Perry—Marinor Ifurung (1) (unassisted), 3rd minute. Pusan—Brieanna Carroll (3) (unassisted), 29th minute. Second half: Pusan—Sarina Parsons (1) (Brieanna Carroll), 31st minute. Pusan—Shea Lippert (1) (unassisted), 38th minute. Perry—Samantha Gingras (1) (Kaili Rowland), 57th minute.
Osan American 2, Taegu American 0
Osan American 0 2—2
Taegu American 0 0—0
First half: No scoring. Second half: Osan—Sharon Kroening (3) (direct kick), 48th minute. Osan—Elise Sanders (1) (Jennifer Gates), 57th minute.
Far East Class AA Soccer Tournament
Kadena 5, Zama American 0
Zama American 0 0—0
Kadena 1 4—5
First half: Kadena—Katie LaGrave (1), 16th minute. Second half: Kadena—Dianne Abel (1), 47th minute. Kadena—Dianne Abel (2), 52nd minute. Kadena—Kim Lyle (1), 55th minute. Kadena—Lauren Finfrock (1), 57th minute.
Nile C. Kinnick 1, Guam High 0
Nile C. Kinnick 0 1—1
Guam High 0 0—0
First half: No scoring Second half: Kinnick—Alexis Zukowski (1) (penalty kick), 53rd minute.
Kadena 3, Guam High 0
Guam High 0 0—0
Kadena 2 1—3
First half: Kadena—Emily Raths (1), 12th minute. Kadena—Dianne Abel (3), 23rd minute. Second half: Kadena—Dianne Abel (4), 50th minute.
Kubasaki 5, Seoul American 1
Seoul American 1 0—1
Kubasaki 3 2—5
First half: Kubasaki—Mary Ann Ulrich (1), 3rd minute. Seoul—Alyssa Lavender (1), 9th minute. Kubasaki—Erin Foote (1), 14th minute. Kubasaki—Erin Foote (2), 15th minute. Second half: Kubasaki—Erin Foote (3), 39th minute. Kubasaki—Kristina Wesche (1), 48th minute.
American School In Japan 4, Yokota 2
American School In Japan 2 2—4
Yokota 1 1—2
First half: Yokota—Minami Plude (1), 10th minute. ASIJ—Elizabeth Schwarz (1), 20th minute. ASIJ—Aki Ito (1), 25th minute. Second half: Yokota—Minami Plude (2), 37th minute. ASIJ—Elizabeth Schwarz (2), 45th minute. ASIJ—Kristen Isle (1), 51st minute.
Kubasaki 3, Yokota 1
Kubasaki 1 2—3
Yokota 0 1—1
First half: Kubasaki—Erin Foote (4), 22nd minute. Second half: Kubasaki—Samantha Showns (1), 39th minute. Yokota—Minami Plude (3), 42nd minute. Kubasaki—Mary Ann Ulrich (2), 46th minute.
Seoul American 3, Robert D. Edgren 2
Seoul American 2 1—3
Robert D. Edgren 2 0—2
First half: Edgren—Jessica Allibone (1), 4th minute. Seoul—Alyssa Lavender (2), 9th minute. Edgren—Jessica Allibone (2), 26th minute. Seoul—Monika Padua (1), 29th minute. Second half: Seoul—Whitney Grandy (1), 59th minute.
