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Wildcats Survive a Wild One
Pichon's Five Goals Help New Jersey Earn Eastern Crown
WEST WINDSOR, NJ - Marinette Pichon connected for five goals and the New Jersey Wildcats needed every one of them as they eked out a 6-5 victory over the Montreal Xtreme yesterday at Mercer County Community College. Pichon's heroics helped the Wildcats claim the Eastern Conference crown and a spot in the semifinals of the W-League championships.
Manya Makoski also scored for the Wildcats, who only allowed five goals in 14 regular season games. New Jersey now rides a 16-game winning streak as it travels to Ottawa next weekend to face the host Ottawa Fury in the semifinals of the W-League championship on Saturday. The semifinal round winners will meet on Sunday for the W-League championship in a game televised on Fox Sports World at 5 p.m.
Caroline Vaillancourt spurred a major comeback for the Xtreme with three goals and one assist. The Wildcats led 3-0 in the closing minute of the first half before falling apart in a 10-minute span bridging halftime. Amy Walsh contributed a goal and two assists for Montreal while Kate Sands posted three assists for the Wildcats.
Things started out well for the Wildcats, who outshot the Xtreme 9-3 in the first half and 19-10 for the game. The chances came early and often as Pichon constantly got behind Montreal's offside trap. Xtreme keeper Marie-Pierre Bilodeau kept Montreal in the game throughout with a number of point-blank stops. Bilodeau stuffed a Pichon break in the 13th minute but wasn't as good three minutes later as the French star opened the scoring by running onto a long pass from Sands and cutting around a defender and Bilodeau before hitting the open net.
Pichon added to the lead in the 21st minute when she slammed a cross from Sands into the upper left corner. She nearly scored two more times on through passes from Kelly Hammond as she slammed a shot into the bar in the 35th minute before ripping one into Bilodeau six minutes later. Pichon finally broke through in the 44th minute as she lifted a through ball from Anne Makinen into the upper left corner.
New Jersey looked to be cruising, but Montreal presented an omen just seconds later. With the Wildcats looking to relax heading into halftime, Vaillancourt got behind the defense along the left endline and slipped a pass for Walsh tuck into an open goal. Montreal didn't let up after halftime as Vaillancourt found herself behind the defense for two goals to tie the game at 3-3. Walsh put Vaillancourt behind the defense for a goal in the 47th minute and LaPalme did the same eight minutes later for the tie.
New Jersey responded well as Makoski put the Wildcats back in the lead in the 65th minute. Kim Francis carried the ball into the box and the ball was poked loose to Makoski, who hit a 12-yard shot into the lower left side of the goal. Montreal caught the Wildcats napping again as Walsh set up Kelly Hemsley less than a minute later. Walsh drew two defenders into the middle before slipping a pass to Hemsley on the right and her shot hit off the hand of Wildcats keeper Amanda Brown and trickled into the net.
The closing minutes summed up the game for the Wildcats as Pichon connected twice in a four-minute span before Montreal mounted one last comeback with a goal in injury time. Pichon ran onto another through ball from Sands and slotted a goal in the 85th minute before getting one more long ball from Janine Willis for a goal in the 89th minute. With three minutes of added time, Vaillancourt hit once more on a long feed from Sharolta Nonen to cut the lead back to one goal.
LINEUPS:
MONTREAL XTREME: Marie-Pierre Bilodeau, Marie-Eve Nault, Sharolta Nonen, Marie-Claude Pinard, Isabelle Morneau, Marie-Emilie Perreault Morier (Myriam Gousse 82), Amy Walsh, Anne Marie LaPalme, Kelly Hemsley, Caroline Vanderpool, Melissa Lesage (Caroline Vaillancourt 32).
NEW JERSEY WILDCATS: Amanda Brown (Becky Wachsberger 82), Janine Willis, Beth McNamara (Kim Francis 50), Kim Brandao, Rochelle Willis, Maura Gallagher (Katie Ludwig 45), Anne Makinen, Kelly Hammond, Manya Makoski, Kate Sands, Marinette Pichon.
GOALS:
NJW – Pichon (Sands) 16th minute
NJW – Pichon (Sands) 21st minute
NJW – Pichon (Makinen) 44th minute
MON – Walsh (Vaillencourt) 45th minute
MON – Vaillencourt (Walsh) 47th minute
MON – Vaillencourt (LaPalme) 55th minute
NJW – Makoski 65th minute
MON – Hemsley (Walsh) 66th minute
NJW – Pichon (Sands) 85th minute
NJW – Pichon (J. Willis) 89th minute
MON – Vaillencourt (Nonen) 90th minute
SAVES:
MON – Bilodeau 6
NJW – Brown 2, Wachsberger 0
SHOTS:
MON – 10, NJW – 19 | 
