NORTH YARMOUTH — Shannon Buzzell’s job on the soccer field usually revolves around preventing goals, not scoring them.

But sometimes her tenacity is just what the offensive attack calls for, especially if her Monmouth Mustangs have a corner kick.

“I’m not normally a forward but we did it in practice,” Buzzell said. “Coach said I was aggressive enough and that he believed in me. He told me to go up front.”

Buzzell buried a header off a pass and lifted Monmouth to a stunning 1-0 overtime win over NYA in a Western C preliminary.

“Coach looked at me and said, ‘This is yours,” Buzzell said. “I knew I had to get it.”

The Mustangs (9-5-1) advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinal against top-ranked St. Dom’s. The Saints rallied to beat Monmouth in overtime, 2-1,  during the regular season.

“It didn’t feel real at all,” said Buzzell of her game-ending goal. “Then you hear everyone else start screaming and you’re like, ‘Oh my God,’ it went in.”

The Mustangs had to overcome some tough breaks in the win. Monmouth had an early goal waved off and then had Kylie Kemp draw a yellow card in the second half and miss 10 minutes.

“You have to think about what you’re doing,” Kemp said. “Coach tells us that every day. He tells us that if we keep working things will come out in the end. We just try to keep each other up.”

Though NYA (7-6-2) controlled play for most of the second half, Trafton kept telling his team to play hard and wait for their break.

“The girls didn’t give up,” Gary Trafton said. “They kept playing hard. I told them at halftime that everybody makes mistakes. All we need is one mistake and we can capitalize. They kicked the ball out of bounds and there was our corner kick.”

It was only the second corner of the game for the Mustangs. The first one led to the goal that was waived off. This time, Kemp put it in front.

“I heard (Trafton) yell, ‘Shannon, this is your ball,'” Kemp said. “We’ve been practicing. So I aimed for right where Shannon was going.”

Buzzell, a junior defender, was toward the far post and got a head on the cross. She put it to the left side, out of reach of NYA keeper Taylor Leech with 6:56 left in the first overtime.

“Kylie always had great corner kicks,” Buzzell said. “She puts it right in there area. You just have to get it in.”

NYA outshot Monmouth, 14-6 and 8-3 in the second half and overtime. Monmouth keeper Mikayla Cameron did a superb job and finished with 11 saves.

“In terms of opportunities, we dominated the game,” NYA coach Josh Thornton said. “It came down to our issue all year. We will not attack the corners both in our end and when its the other way. We’re a good team but have to do the stuff we don’t want to do. That was our downfall today.”

Monmouth thought it had scored 11:23 into the game. The Mustangs had a corner on the left side. Kemp was sent to replace Sammy Grandahl at the last moment to take the kick. It was a play Trafton had explained to the officials before the game.

Grandahl left the ball on the ground for Kemp. She dribbled out of the corner and blasted a shot in off the crossbar. The goal was soon waived off. The officials said the ball was not touched properly before Kemp came out of the corner with it.

“I still don’t understand why they didnt’ call that a goal,” Kemp said. “They said she didn’t touch it. We just said, ‘We’ll get another one. Don’t be mad about it and don’t take it out on the refs. We just had to be positive.”

Monmouth nearly scored late in the half when Paxton Lessard had a high shot that was saved by Leech.

In the second half, NYA possessed the ball and had the Mustangs chasing most of the time. Monmouth’s cause wasn’t helped by losing Kemp for 10 minutes in the middle of the half. She was ready to sub in and inadvertently went on the field on an NYA throw. The official timer nor the officials noticed the mistake. Seconds later, the ball went out and it was Monmouth’s throw.  Thornton complained to the officials about the illegal substitution, and Kemp was subsequently given a yellow.

Monmouth weathered that storm and got some solid play from the defense and some big saves down the stretch by Cameron.

“We moved some girls around and had them play different positions,” Trafton said. “Paxton Lessard played forward for maybe 15 minutes all year. Everyone that went int did their job.”

Alex Wahlstrom led the Panther’s offense and had numerous chances in the second half, but NYA just couldn’t finish.

“They’re devastated because they know they’re good enough to have moved on,” Thornton said. “Soccer is unpredictable.  We had games where we’ve been the worst team and we won. That’s the way it goes.”

kmills@sunjournal.com