Cordner comes back to key Laurels' 2-0 win over Liberty
By Gary R. Blockus (The Morning Call)
For Kennya Cordner, the Northampton Laurels 2008 season ended almost as soon as it began.
Cordner, known as ''Ya Ya'' to her teammates, spent most of the summer playing for the Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 national and senior national teams.
She returned to the U.S. just 10 days ago, and tallied the first goal of the game as the Laurels broke a scoreless tie in the second half to defeat the Philadelphia Liberty 2-0 at J. Birney Crum Stadium.
''It was great just being back with this team,'' Cordner said. ''The girls played this team before and lost 1-0 ... We did our best and came out to win.''
The Laurels ended the season 4-7-1 with the upset win over Philadelphia, which eliminated the Liberty from playoff contention. Philadelphia (4-2-5) was tied for fourth heading into the night, and a win, with a few losses by other teams, could have caused the Liberty team to climb as high as second place, which would have been a playoff spot.
Cordner eliminated that hope about a third of the way into the second half. Melissa Kornock, the team's leading goal scorer, started the play with a run down the left wing. She made a nice through pass to Tracy Fitzpatrick on the nearside, who sent the ball wide toward Cordner on the right.
Liberty goalie Annie Loway played the cross like a shot, which took her out of position as Cordner gained possession and fired a crossing shot back into the left panel.
Kornock scored her sixth goal of the season in the 80th minute, taking a feed from Chelsea Paskman on the left before rocketing a shot to the far right corner.
''I think the girls came out with determination to win,'' Laurels coach Anthony Creece said.
Laurels goalie Caitlin Corrigan, a Pennridge High School graduate who stars at Moravian College, made seven saves, several of the outstanding variety.
''I think all the girls are looking forward to their college seasons now,'' Creece said, ''and I hope this will give them some momentum toward that goal.''
Stoners rained out: Once again, it rained on the Pennsylvania Stoners parade.
The Stoners, the first-year team that captured the regular season title in the North Division of the Northeast Region of the National Premier Soccer League, were poised for the first playoff game in their history when lightning forced a postponement.
The Stoners (8-1-1) were scheduled to play the New York Athletic Club on Sunday night at J. Birney Crum Stadium in Allentown, but lightning forced a delay in the contest before game officials called for a postponement just after 9:30 p.m.
No makeup date has been set.
NYAC (4-4-2) finished in second place in the Mid-Atlantic Division of the Northeast Region.
