The soccer ball was placed 12 yards from CMU goalkeeper Shay Mannino with 2:19 remaining in the Mid-American Conference Championship game.

Miami’s Allison Berkey was in position to tie the game at 1 apiece on a penalty kick Sunday at the CMU Soccer Complex. Berkey struck the ball, and Mannino dove to her right in desperation to hold onto the lead.

Mannino’s hands met the ball. And the Chippewas held on to become conference champions in women’s soccer for the first time in school history.

“I was ready … I knew that she was going to go that way because she shot that way in the Eastern game,” Mannino said, referring to Berkey’s game-tying penalty shot in Friday’s semifinal against the Eagles.

Sophomore Clair Horton put Central ahead 14:01 into the first half when the ball bounced to her near the 18-yard box.

Horton shot the ball into the upper left corner of the net to give CMU the only goal it needed.
“It popped out to me and I just kept my head shot and shot it,” Horton said. “I didn’t know it was going to go there but, luckily, it did.”

Throw it in

CMU had more chances in the first half, including headers from freshman Laura Twidle with 13 minutes remaining and Brielle Heitman with five minutes. Both attempts missed high.

Both headers came off throw-ins deep inside Miami’s end from freshman Bailey Brandon. She found a teammate who headed the ball to Twidle and Heitman.

Although the Brandon throw-in has become an important part of CMU’s offensive attack, Brandon said the success of her throw-ins has more to do with her teammates heading the throw-in toward the middle of the action, not the distance she puts on the throw.

“The only reason it is so successful is because you have people like Amanda Waugh and Valerie Prause who are able to get on the end of it, and they make it look really easy,” she said.

Horton said it was the type of start the team has been looking for the last couple of weeks.

“We came out with a lot of intensity,” she said. “We had a lot of confidence and we knew that we were going to win this game.”

Closing it out

As the second half began, sophomore first team All-MAC selection Liesel Toth said CMU did not keep up that intensity, and that led to opportunities for Miami.

“The first 20 minutes (of the second half), we definitely let up,” she said. “We didn’t put them on their heels like we did in the first half and that was really scary.”

Two-and-a-half minutes into the second half, Miami’s Krysti Clark hit the crossbar on a header while looking for the equalizer.

But it was the penalty shot by Berkey that was Miami’s closest attempt to tie the game. Coach Tom Anagnost said although his defense did not play its best game, it did what it needed to do to win and that it is all he was looking for.

“They came out and were fantastic that second half and threw everything at us,” he said. “We bent, but didn’t break.”

CMU now looks toward the first round of the NCAA Tournament this weekend. The pairings will be announced at 8 p.m. Monday.

E-mail the author: Matthew Valinski