Chopticon girls fall to H-town

Team eliminated in 3A South quarters

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

After boasting a No. 1 spot in the Class 3A South region and a first-round bye, Huntingtown took advantage of many fresh opportunities versus a feisty ninth-seeded Chopticon team.

Not only did senior Micaela Antzoulatos have a hat trick, but her sister Tina dished out a key assist on Micaela's third goal to help lead the Hurricanes to a storming 5-1 win in the regional quarterfinals over the visiting Braves.

With the win, Huntingtown (11-1-1 overall) advances to the regional semifinals and will host fourth-seeded Thomas Stone at 4:30 p.m. today. The Cougars nipped fifth-seeded La Plata 2-1 in another quarterfinal Tuesday.

After Lauren Soper missed her first attempt in the 10th minute, due to an incredible save by Chopticon's Sandy Bynaker (six saves), the Huntingtown junior came back a minute later and lifted a shot to the back of the net from a Tina Antzoulatos' delivery to put the team up 1-0.

After a foul was called inside the box Huntingtown was rewarded a penalty kick and Micaela Antzoulatos converted the attempt to give her squad the 2-nil lead at halftime.

"We started out great, the way we wanted to play, played with great intensity, but started to watch a little bit," Chopticon head coach Brian Breckenridge said. "We had some bad calls. On our stat sheet there were 30 calls that were against Huntingtown and four against us, but no cards came out. You can't persistently foul and foul and not get a card. There were two penalty kicks that shouldn't have been called. Huntingtown played a great game and deserve it, but the referees took us out of the game no question."

In the first 11 minutes of the second half, Micaela Antzoulatos scored the next two goals to put the Hurricanes up 4-0.

With less than two minutes to go, senior Alicia Eller tallied Chopticon's lone goal from 10 yards out to cut the deficit to 4-1. Sophomore Taylor Morton responded with Huntingtown's fifth and last goal on another penalty kick with under a minute left to seal the win.

ajmason@somdnews.com