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Moretto Completes Comeback with Winning Goal

Sunday, September 4, 2011
 

Football honor

Jillian Moretto felt a pop and immediately knew something was wrong.

The midfielder on the Muhlenberg women’s soccer team

CJ Graetzer
Graetzer's assist was the fifth of her career.
suffered a high ankle sprain against Dickinson last year, ending her sophomore season. She was on crutches for three weeks and did light running, biking and swimming to try to stay in shape before she could come back full speed in the spring.

“I was really focused on coming back strong,” she said.

Come back strong she has. Moretto scored her first career goal in her second game back to lift the Mules to a 1-0 win at Kean.

Midway through the first half, sophomore CJ Graetzer sent a cross from the right wing into the box. The Cougar goalie charged out, but Moretto

celebration
Moretto (second from left) celebrates with her teammates.
got to the ball first and chipped it over her. The ball hit the inside of the left post and ricocheted into the net.

Moretto knew it was in all the way. “As soon as I saw it hit the post, I turned around and ran to the team,” she said. “I was ecstatic. It was a great feeling.”

And it was an even better feeling 67 minutes later, when that goal stood up as the lone score of the game. Senior Michele Toher made two saves on long-distance shots to post her 14th career shutout, but the Mule defense kept Kean from having any dangerous scoring chances.

Muhlenberg finished with a 9-6 advantage in shots and did not allow a corner kick against a team that it lost to, 3-2, last year.

“We had some great competition this weekend, and we played amazing,” said Moretto. “It didn’t go our way yesterday [a 2-1 loss to Richard Stockton] but we were really able to connect from the defense to the midfield to the forwards. I’m proud of this team and we’re proud of each other.”
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