Central-West girls can’t clinch playoff berth, fall to Windham, 1-0

WINDHAM, NH —Shayne Schackelman scored on a penalty kick with less than five minutes left to play, lifting Windham High to a 1-0 win over Central-West, in a critical Division I showdown, Tuesday afternoon.

Central-West and Windham entered the final week of the regular season locked in a battle with Dover for the 14th and final Division I State Tournament berth.

With its victory Tuesday, Windham ends its season at 4-8-4, good for 24 points (4 points for a win, 2 points for a tie.)

With a 1-0 loss to Concord on Tuesday, Dover fell to 3-9-3 (18 points, one game remaining) and was eliminated.

Central-West sits at 5-9-1 (22 points) and would need an upset win at Exeter (11-1-2) in its season-finale, Thursday afternoon, to leapfrog Windham and earn the final berth.

Tuesday’s game in Windham was a physical affair, played with the type of intensity one would expect from two teams desperate to extend their seasons.

“It was a physical game. Both teams played like it meant something, because it did,” said Central-West Head Coach Josh Bouthot. “So now we’ve got one game left against Exeter and we have to win it.”

Windham held a territorial edge, with Schackelman, Kyra Faulkingham and Alyse Pelletier controlling the midfield.

The Jaguars attack led to seven corners but they were unable to take advantage, thanks to stellar play from the Central-West fullbacks. Juniors Tiana Mann, Marley Oates and Layla Mohamed and sophomore Taylor Morin were helped by senior co-captain and center mid Braelin Smith.

”We’ve been bending and not breaking a lot of the time. Instead of giving up anything dangerous, we just get rid of it,” said Bouthot, whose club came into the game on a three-game win streak.

Windham was significantly limited in its quality scoring bids and Central-West keeper Izzy Bachhuber was forced to make just five saves.

Windham’s best scoring bid came from Pelletier, who made a steal at the edge of the keeper box, maneuvered around two defenders and walked in alone, only to chip a shot over the net.

At the other end of the pitch, Central-West was facing similar struggles. The Windham defense did a sensational job putting the shackles on the C-W forwards and quality scoring chances were hard to come by. O

Windham keeper Amanda Call finished with seven saves, none especially challenging.

”I think we had less scoring chances than they did,” said Bouthot. “We were scrambling a little bit because we were always having to recover and back up.”

Central-West’s best bid came with just under 10 minutes to play. Morin struck a direct kick from about 30 yards that curled down toward the center of the net but caromed off the crossbar.

After dodging that bullet, Windham launched a counter attack that kept Central-West back on its heels. The visitors scrambled to try and clear the ball only to have the Jaguars knock it back in.

In the 76th minute, Oates swung her leg to try and clear the ball from in front of the net but caught the calf of Windham’s Pelletier instead.

Pelletier went down hard and, as the foul had occurred in the box, was awarded a penalty kick. Schackelman was chosen to take the kick and deftly poked it into the left hand corner of the net before Bachhuber had time to react.