Piedmont comes up short in NCS final
As they had 18 times already, Piedmont High School’s Friedie Schickedanz and College Park’s Alyssa Hennefer met at the middle of the field at College Park. The ball was placed by the official into the mesh of both sticks. The whistle blew. The ball few up into the night air towards the visitors side football bleachers.
Brady Lyons chased the ball down for the Falcons, wheeled, and headed toward the Highlanders goal. She then centered the ball to Hennefer, who fired it into the Piedmont net.
It was over that quickly. Just 19 seconds into overtime, College Park had an 8-7 win in the championship game of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs on May 15.
“It’s really hard,” Highlanders coach Carlton Chan said. “In a draw, it’s a fast-break situation. For the defense to recover. They ran a great scheme. In fact they were running cutters all day. When the ball’s coming down, the girls are looking down. They’re not looking behind. The cutter [Hennefer] just got in.”
Piedmont had a chance to win in regulation, taking possession with just under four minutes left, calling timeout at 3:43 on the clock and then stalling, hoping to get the winning shot in the final minute. Junior scoring ace Peyton Watson had a great shot but it bounced over the net, clipping the crossbar.
“They were like, ‘OK, you’re going to do Miramonte,’” Watson said. “That’s one of the plays. I was a little worried about it because I’m always worried about taking the last shot and it not really working out that well.
“We held the ball for a good three minutes and I called the play, it didn’t work out as well as we thought it would, but it’s OK.”
She added, “So close. So close. It hit the crossbar. I was like, ‘Usually that’s a really good goal. But I hit the crossbar.”
Schickedanz, playing her final high school game, was philisophic.
“Things happen,” she said. “We’re still in high school. It’s a high-pressure game. I think we get as far as we can and then it comes down to the mental game. Are we going to make this shot, are we going to take this shot?
“It’s pretty stressful out there! We set ourselves in a good position which is all we can do and our coaches set us up. And things happen. There are no hard feelings at all. We played our hearts out.”
Watson, coming off of a 10-goal game in the semifinals against Bishop O’Dowd, was chased all over the field. She still scored three goals, but the focus meant that offense needed to come from other players. Schickedanz filled the role, scoring three goals on similar drives from the X-position behind the net, around the goalie’s right side to the front for a shot. She also assisted on two goals.
“It’s reading what the defense is giving you,” Shickedanz said. “O’Dowd specifically played a backer, hold someone in the middle to cover anybody who is driving in. [College Park was] just sending more girls on me harder. If it’s a team that I know these girls girls aren’t as fast or aren’t as strong, I’m willing to take my chances and just try to beat them.”
Said Watson, “They were good at defense. They were able to get a lot of contact and push me out.”
Chloe Graham had the other goal for Piedmont. Sophie Santander had 11 saves and Chan said it was the best game she had played all year.
Piedmont’s Jordan Kim (20), Reni Suhr (purple behind) and Luisa Cole (4) hound College Park’s Avila Jopes (1). College Park won in overtime in the NCS Division 2 championship game, 8-7. 
Piedmont’s Luisa Cole (4) evades College Park’s Gillian Rose (11) in the first half of the NCS Division 2 championship game. The Highlanders lost in overtime, 8-7. 
Piedmont’s Peyton Watson (18) looks for space to get a shot off against College Park’s Brady Lyons (99) in the NCS Division 2 championship game on May 15 at College Park. 
Piedmont’s Reni Suhr speeds upfield during an 8-7 loss at College Park in the NCS Division 2 championship game on May 15. 
Piedmont’s Friedie Schickedanz (55) scores the first of her three goals as College Park’s Gwen Stroot (white left), Julia Canova (20), Kiri Hall (23) and Emma Jones-Bey (21) try to defend.
The Falcons were led by two goals and two assists from Lyons. Hennefer and Gillian Rose also had two goals each. Avila Jopes and Cheyenne Ruperto had single goals and Rio Rauschmeier had an assist.
The Highlanders jumped to a 4-1 lead early, a reverse of the semifinal when Bishop O’Dowd went up by the same score. In that game, Piedmont scored six consecutive goals to take the lead for good. This time, it was College Park scoring four in a row to take a 5-4 lead at halftime.
The rest of the game was close with neither team taking more than a one-goal lead. Schickedanz tied the game at 5-5 early in the third quarter, and Lyons found Hennefer a little over a minute later to put the Falcons back up. Schickedanz struck against with 2:27 left in the third quarter and the teams went to the fourth tied at 6-6.
Schickedanz passed to Watson for a goal with 8:26 left. Rose scored on a nifty under-hand shot with 5:19 to go.
The Highlanders finished a bit of an up-and-down year 11-10, but got hot at the right time, winning three in a row to make the final and then losing a coin flip game in the championship.
“I’m really proud,” Schickedanz said. “We fought to the end. I think the fact that we went down and came back up really speaks to the resiliency and how we can keep fighting through the end and make good things happen for ourselves. Even if it wasn’t the end result that we wanted, the fact that we were even able to keep it at a tie. It was a really low-scoring game in the second half so I think that speaks to how hard we were playing and wanted to win.”
Watson was proud of the playoff run.
“I did not expect us to even make it to the second round of NCS so I’m really proud of our team,” she said. “And I think everyone feels really accomplished even though we lost this last game.”