By TIM IRVING
Brighton junior Maggie Cregan wasn’t supposed to play for the Bruins in the Class A1 semifinals against Churchville-Chili.
After injuring an ankle in Brighton’s playoff opener against Gates, Cregan had barely practiced and coach Rita Kladstrup was hoping to avoid using her at all.
But then Saints’ junior Amelia Breton changed all that. She scored two first-half goals and put Churchville up 2-0 at the break.
Still, Kladstrup didn’t have Cregan, one of Monroe County’s leading scorers, in the lineup to start the second half.
“I was really mad that I didn’t start the half, “ Cregan said.” We lost in the semis last year so I really wanted to come out and win.”
Kladstrup kept checking with her trainer and with 17 minutes left, relented.
“The more she sat, the more fired up she got. I told her, if you wanna go back in, you gotta score two goals and tie the game,” Kladstrup said.
Cregan not only scored twice but four times and assisted on another in a 5-2 overtime victory for the Bruins.
She converted a penalty kick with 15:55 to play to cut the lead to 2-1.
With 7:30 to play, Pauny Khounpachamsy got the ball in the middle and slotted a ball to Cregan for the equalizer and forced overtime.
Just 31 seconds into the first extra period, Cregan got free on the left side and went short side for the hat trick and a 3-2 Bruins lead.
The teams play two full ten-minute periods and Brighton kept tacking on. Cregan made a cutback move and hit Izzy Alexandre, literally, knocking the wind out of her while the ball rolled into the net.
33 seconds into the second period, Cregan scored on a free kick, giving her 31 goals on the season.
“At the half, we weren’t playing like Brighton girls soccer does. We were panicking, we just weren’t playing ourselves,” said Cregan.
“Churchville was doing great, they were winning balls out of the air, kinda dominated. They were fighting, working harder and we adjusted to the switches we made and got more offensive,” Kladstrup added.
Brighton will play Spencerport in the Sectionals for the second straight season, the Rangers beat the Bruins in the semifinals last year.
“We are a fairly young team and I think they have to go through it first to realize what Sectionals is about but they’ll fight to the end, which they did tonight.”
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