Kayleigh Dolan took no prisoners Saturday, Oct. 24, as the third-seeded Mahopac girls soccer team overpowered No. 14 Brewster to get its postseason off to a winning start.
Playing on her home turf, senior captain Dolan was unstoppable, scoring four goals in a career-best performance to lead the Wolf Pac to a commanding 6-1 victory in the opening round of the Section 1 Class AA playoffs.
The win propelled Mahopac (12-2-3) into Tuesday's sectional quarterfinals, where the Wolf Pac will host No. 6 Nyack in hopes of reaching the semifinals for the second consecutive season.
With Dolan on the rampage, the Bears did everything they could to slow her down—even assigning "spies" to shadow the prolific striker throughout the match. That meant her teammates had to be especially sharp to create space and find openings for their leading scorer.
They responded brilliantly.
Time and again, Mahopac's midfielders and forwards connected on precise passes that allowed Dolan to break free—and she made the Bears pay to give the Pac a comfortable win.
“I was getting man marked the whole time I was in, so I also had to figure out a way to get past them,” said Dolan, who added to her season scoring account (33 combined goals and assists) after scoring the lone goal in Mahopac’s league title-clinching win on Oct. 21. “The whole midfield knew that and did their job by playing great through balls, especially the outside middies. Sending the ball is what we’ve been trying to do most games and we did that against Brewster.”
The Bears (3-11-2) hung around for a half, trailing 2-1 at the break, but Dolan got cooking at 30:43, assisted sophomore midfielder Sophie McLoughlin. She did it again four minutes later to give Mahopac a 4-1 lead.
Junior midfielder Alana Ziegelhofer padded the lead at 10:43 and junior varsity call-up Gracie Preikschat provided the final margin at 7:53.
“Gracie Preikschat definitely came ready to play yesterday and made a big impact when she entered the game,” coach Daniella Morgante said. “She’s been battling injuries, and we’ve been working through that together, so to see her out there, feeling good and making an impact was everything.”
Morgante loves the progression of the unit and expects her squad to remain hungry against Nyack (12-5) and subsequent foes should they move on.
“Isn’t that the truth about still being hungry!” the coach said. “Kayleigh surely was, all the girls were. They just want to be out there playing. They have a genuine love for the game and the mentality that they don’t want this season to end, which is such a powerful thing to have going into the postseason. Anything can happen this time of year, and we’ve already seen that. We’re taking it one game at a time, enjoying every moment, and really soaking in this journey together. I honestly don’t think there are words to describe how proud I am of this group.”
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