FOUNTAIN SPRINGS - The words are all about respect, which is earned and not given.

“Watch No. 7!”

“Watch No. 7!”

When the Tamaqua girls soccer team takes the field, No. 7 is the drawing card - the player the other team has to be mindful of and defend.

Sophia Boyle isn’t big by any stretch of the imagination, but she is the generator and the electricity that drives the Blue Raiders.

Blue Mountain knew all about Boyle before Saturday’s Division I wild card first round tiebreaker match. Boyle has been around the Schuylkill League for four years, but unfortunately for Tamaqua on this particular autumn afternoon, she was contained.

Because of that, and an early goal by the Eagles, the Blue Raiders dropped a 1-0 decision. The win allowed Blue Mountain to punch its ticket into tonight’s tiebreaker final against Jim Thorpe at Lehighton.

The three-way tie for the wild card came as a result of Pine Grove bowing out due to COVID-19, thus forcing this matchup at North Schuylkill. The Cardinals, however, will resurface in the District 11 playoffs later this month.

Blue Mountain’s first-year head coach Adam Freeman was happy to find his girls squeezing out the victory even though scoring was tough to come by.

“It’s a little disappointing we didn’t score more goals, but at the end of the day, the win is what we wanted,” said Freeman.

Tamaqua mentor Clem McCarroll wasn’t too dejected. After all, no one figured this group would contend after 12 seniors (nine of them starters) departed via graduation.

“We’re a notorious slow-starting team,” McCarroll said. “We didn’t expect to be here; you could see the inexperience … the youth and inexperience shows. Especially in the first half of games.”

That inexperience and pattern of starting slow surfaced in the opening half, proving McCarroll’s assessment was spot-on. Tamaqua didn’t have a shot on goal, while the Eagles were playing practically all of the first 40 minutes in the Raiders’ end of the field. While the Raiders were held without a shot, Blue Mountain fired away with seven of its nine shots coming in the opening half.

The only goal of the day was on a deflection off one of the Tamaqua defenders. With 23:05 on the first-half clock, Kera Paul boot found its was past Tamaqua keeper Zoe Seltzer.

“We held possession most of the game and we knew a mistake would come eventually,” Freeman said. “We capitalized. What I preach is ‘possession, possession, possession’ and it paid off.”

Tamaqua settled into a much better groove in the second half, asserting itself, and nearly punched home the tying goal on a point-blank shot from Boyle with 15:37 remaining in the contest. Blue Mountain keeper Angelina White came up with a heads-up play. White, in a split-second reaction, blocked Boyle’s shot, which seemed destined for the back of the net.

“It’s a hard way to lose a game,” McCarroll said. “We played our hearts out. We could have easily laid down at the end. The second half we came out and played good soccer.”

MORE TO COME … Tamaqua still has a makeup contest with Nativity and will enter the playoffs later down the road.

BIG TIME EFFORT … Seltzer was pressured all afternoon, even more so in the opening half, but she never broke down. She finished with 13 saves. At the other end, White had four saves for the winners.

BY THE NUMBERS … Blue Mountain had 14 shots and nine corner kicks. Tamaqua could only manage four shots and two corners.

QUOTEABLE … “Every time we get to the stadium, they’re yelling watch No. 7. They’re marking her before she even steps on the field,” said McCarroll, describing the respect for Boyle.