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SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
Overcoming adversity After suffering two major injuries in her high school career, Emma Karch is ready for a big senior season with Cinnaminson girls soccer By MIKE MONOSTRA Sports Editor
There aren’t many soccer players in South Jersey who have the offensive prowess of Cinnaminson senior Emma Karch. During her first two years, Karch was one of the top offensive weapons for the Pirates. She had an immediate impact her freshman year in 2016, scoring 14 goals and helping the Pirates reach the South Jersey Group 2 final, which they lost to Haddonfield. The next year, Karch and the team took another step forward. Karch scoring 19 goals and again helped Cinnaminson to the sectional final against Haddonfield. This time, the Pirates won, with Karch scoring one goal and assisting on another in the victory. There also aren’t many soccer players who have had to overcome the injuries Karch has had to over the past few years. Karch’s first major injury was a broken left leg she suffered shortly after her freshman season. The
MIKE MONOSTRA/South Jersey Sports Weekly
Cinnaminson senior Emma Karch fires a shot on goal during the Pirates’ game at Moorestown on Wednesday. Karch is back in the Cinnaminson lineup after missing the entire 2018 season. second was when Karch tore her left ACL during a game with her club team in May of 2018. The injury wiped out her junior season and kept her off the field for more than a year. “When I tore my ACL, I was really frustrat-
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ed,” Karch said. “I was going to give up. But then I thought, when I broke my leg, I came back even stronger. So I just kept thinking of that.” Karch didn’t give up. She’s now back on
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the field and poised to be one of South Jersey’s top offensive weapons once again. In her first competitive game in more than a year on Sept. 3 against Cherry Hill West, Karch scored to help the Pirates to a 2-1 win. She would score again four days later in a victory at Kingsway. “That felt really good because I haven’t obviously scored in a while or even played,” Karch said of her goal in the Cherry Hill West game. “It felt good to put it in the back of the net because I had other opportunities throughout the game.” “It was huge,” said Brandon Bond, Cinnaminson’s second-year head coach. “Getting the first game jitters out of the way, coming back from that injury, picking up where she left off from a year ago and being able to score, it was huge for her confidence and the team’s confidence.” A lot has changed with Cinnaminson since Karch last took the field for the please see KARCH, page S7