Vermont Green FC Women’s Soccer loses in USL2 Championship Match
Green force overtime late, but fall in penalty shootout against Salmon Bay FC
SEATTLE —
A historic inaugural season for Vermont Green FC women’s soccer came to an end in the USL W national championship.
The Green battled hard to force overtime but ultimately lost in a penalty shootout to the eventual 20206 USL W champions Salmon Bay FC.
The majority of the match remained tied at 0-0, with both goalies refusing to give up any goals for the first 77 minutes of play.
Morgan Manalilli would break the ice scoring in the 78th minute aiming low past Vermont goalie Olivia Shippe to help Salmon Bay take the 1-0 lead.
Vermont was able to find their equalizer in extra time, with Waterbury, VT native Louisa Thomsen scoring off a corner kick play to tie the score at 1-1 and send the game to overtime.
In penalty kicks, both teams traded goals and saves leading to the shootout score to be tied at 4-4 after the first five shots. However, a miss from Vermont on the sixth penalty shot opened the door for Salmon Bay FC who scored to take the 5-4 PK advantage.
“It’s a frustrating thing to get all the way to the final and lose the match,” said Vermont Green FC head coach Abby Carchio. “But it doesn’t take away from the story that we wrote … to make it this far in an inaugural year and push a team that is not in its inaugural year as hard as we did makes me so proud of the girls.”
The Green still had a season to remember in their first ever USL W campaign. Vermont won the Northeast Division Regular season title with a 6-0-4 record. They earned a USL W eastern conference championship win and USL W national semifinal win before losing their first ever game in the league in the USL W national championship.