Sophomore Allison Smith scored the first goal as Tower Hill blanked Woodbridge 2-0 in the DIAA Division II Girls Soccer Tournament on Saturday.
MILFORD – At 6-foot-2, Delaware Girls Basketball Player of the Year Altia Anderson presented a formidable obstacle as Woodbridge’s goalkeeper on Saturday.
It took 14 shots and 42 minutes for Tower Hill to finally get one past her. Then the Hillers added an insurance goal and fought through a steady rain to seal a 2-0 victory over the Blue Raiders in the opening round of the DIAA Division II Girls Soccer Tournament at Briggs Stadium.
“She’s an imposing figure,” Tower Hill coach Garry Chandler said of Anderson. “She’s tall and athletic. She can get the high ball, she can get to the wide ball. We really had to work.”
The eighth-seeded Hillers (12-4) outshot ninth-seeded Woodbridge 11-1 in the first half, but Anderson kept it even. The senior punched out a 20-yard drive by Tower Hill’s Allie Salter in the 35th minute, cradled a 30-yard blast from Simi Olurin a minute later and smothered a low shot by Isabelle Pilson two minutes after that.
“We can bring attack, but we have really struggled to finish for much of the year,” Chandler said. “It showed in the first half. Once you get the first one in, you can relax a little bit. But as minutes tick by, it gets tighter and tighter.”
The Hillers finally found a way to loosen it up two minutes into the second half. Sophomore Allison Smith instantly pounced on a rebound to make it 1-0.
“Our team had a lot of opportunities and crosses, and it was all thanks to them,” Smith said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to put it in.”
Anderson managed to stop Pilson on what appeared to be two golden opportunities, but she had no chance in the 64th minute. The ball deflected off three players and straight to the right foot of Salter for a tap-in goal.
“I was just in the right place,” Salter said. “Everyone did a really good job serving the balls to us. It was really important to get that one more goal.”
Tower Hill advanced to face top-seeded Indian River in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, at a site and time to be determined. Anderson made 13 saves for Woodbridge, which finished its season at 11-4-1.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ.
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