HAWTHORNS IN NAILBITER SEMI-FINAL

March 28, 2010 — The Parsippany Hawthorns’ 2010 Capitol Cup campaign finished in dramatic style in Annapolis, Maryland. A closely-fought 0-0 defensive stalemate against Freestate Freedom, and a more comfortable 2-0 win over St Mary’s United, were enough to see the Hawthorns through to the semi-finals. Their reward was an early morning clash with the Pachuca Dragons, who had notched a total of 9 goals on their road to the semi-finals. From the first whistle, a fierce end-to-end battle provided plenty of excitement, while committed defending by both teams made sure that none of the goalscoring chances were easy ones. With less than a minute remaining on the clock and no goals on the board, the evenly matched encounter looked bound for a penalty shoot-out. But it was just then that a spectacular last-gasp shot from the corner of the 18-yard-box by the Dragons’ striker finally broke the deadlock. Although the Parsippany girls may have left Maryland briefly disappointed by the outcome of their semi-final, the memories of an otherwise successful weekend is likely to last much longer!