VIDEO, PHOTOS: Repici brilliant as Middle responds to skirmish by pulling away for playoff victory

Posted: November 4th 2024

Middle Township's Gracie Repici, who scored four goals in the playoff win, races toward the penalty area.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The Middle Township High School girls soccer team held a 2-1 lead 15 minutes into the second half of Monday’s South Jersey Group II playoff game. But Gloucester was threatening, having enjoyed the better of the play over a six- or seven-minute stretch.

An altercation that saw a player from each team sent off with red cards changed the tenor of the contest, however.

Following the reduction to 10 players for each team, Middle erupted for three goals over the next six minutes and eventually rolled to a 6-1 victory to advance in the tournament.

“I’m certainly glad the girls were able to settle down after an event like that and play good soccer,” Middle coach Mark Scarpa said. “Did I expect three goals in a handful of minutes? No. But we’ll take that any day of the week, no doubt. I think it says a lot about their ability to stay focused on the task. We’ve talked all year about not getting distracted. There have been times we’ve gotten distracted by things but I’m proud of the way they stayed focused after what happened today.”

Middle (9-10), the No. 8 seed in the bracket, will face No. 1 West Deptford on Thursday in the second round.

Gracie Repici, a handful for the Lions’ defense throughout, scored four goals to lead Middle in Monday’s win, upping her career total to 48.

“I told her at the end of the game I thought this was the best game she’s played all year, and that’s saying something because she doesn’t play many poor games,” Scarpa said. “Without a doubt, I thought from minute No. 1, she was switched on. You could see that in her warmup and you could see it in the first few minutes of the game.”

Repici opened the scoring with the game only in its infancy, the senior striker delivering a composed finish after calmly dancing through the penalty area with the ball after just three minutes. Middle’s dream start continued only a few minutes later when Keily Sanchez buried a penalty kick after a hand-ball violation was whistled against Gloucester at the top of the penalty area.

No. 9 seed Gloucester (11-7-1) pulled one back when Meghan Gorman surprised an unalert Middle defense by dribbling a corner kick into the top of the left side of the penalty area and striking the ball inside the right post with 20 minutes remaining in the half.

The game remained scoreless through the altercation that led to a pair of red cards with a little more than 24 minutes to play. Repici took the game over from there, scoring three times in quick succession to turn a tense affair into a rout.

Riley Odom added the sixth for Middle with a wonderful head-ball finish off a Sanchez corner kick.

Repici’s relentless pressure up front, the work of Sanchez and Gab Oliver in the midfield and the defending of center backs Odom and Parker Millstead were instrumental in Middle imposing its will as the game progressed.

“We knew they were most likely going to play a 4-4-2 (formation) against so we knew, for the most part, that our center mids were going to be two against two, and when they’re not outnumbered I’ll take Keily and Gab every time. They did a phenomenal job winning the 50-50 balls out of the air, helping us get the ball forward and, most importantly, helping our back line as a first line of defense,” Scarpa said. “And Riley and Parker always play really, really well together. Riley is just tough as nails and an incredible athlete and Parker is sort of the quiet one who pays attention to everything and reads the game so well. To have the two of them with differing styles, they complement each other really well back there.”

Sanchez finished with three assists in addition to her penalty-kick goal. Izzy Miller chipped in two assists.

Middle will now face a top-seeded West Deptford team that is considered one of the favorites to win the sectional championship.

“They’re the No. 1 seed in Group II for a reason,” Scarpa said. “We can feel good about this win for a little bit here but then we’re going to have to really research and prepare for a very, very good team.”