Millburn girls soccer coach Andy Sones wasn’t particularly pleased with his team’s offensive play at halftime, and he let his team know about it.

“We weren’t executing the game plan,” Sones said. “It’s difficult for me to find things offensively that I was happy with in the first half, and I told them that.”

The pep talk seemed to work as Millburn stepped up its pressure in the second half and overtime, leading the opposition to make a critical mistake.

Junior Nikki Willens scored on a penalty kick with 3:43 left in the second overtime to lift fourth-seeded Millburn past fifth-seeded Somerville 2-1 Thursday in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association North II Group 2 quarterfinals.

Millburn will travel to top-seeded Cranford for a semifinal round matchup Monday. Cranford defeated ninth-seeded Rahway to advance in its quarterfinal game.

Somerville had been successful in staving off a strong push by Millburn, especially in the overtime sessions. The Millers registered 12 shots during the extra periods, while the Pioneers were held without an attempt.

Millburn was in the process of setting up another scoring chance when the ball deflected off of a Somerville defender’s right arm. Without hesitation, the official whistled the Pioneers player for a hand ball, giving Willens the opportunity to win it. The junior calmly stepped up and fired the shot past Somerville goalie Catherine Brown to start the celebration.

“It was comforting knowing that even if I missed we still had (penalty kicks),” said Willens, who has connected on all four of her penalty tries this season. “It’s good to know the coach is confident in me.”

The game was scoreless throughout the first half and majority of the second half before Millburn (16-5) finally broke through with 9:01 left in regulation. Junior Emily Beimfohr served up a long corner kick that reached the far post. Junior Tanya Sood applied a header to the ball that lifted over the outstretched arms of Brown for the first goal of the game.

Holding Somerville without a shot on goal, Millburn appeared content playing keep away with its short passes. But Somerville was able to answer Sood’s tally off of a corner kick of its own. Raiders forward Danielle Deserio found an opening on the left side and connected with 2:49 left for all of Pioneers’ offense.

Paced by the steady play in the back by Sood and fullback Carly Feit, Millburn limited Somerville’s chances throughout the game. Feit stripped the ball away on a breakaway by Megan Rossomondo early in the second half and made another key stop with 12:35 left to keep the game scoreless and limit the work for Tori Graessle, who didn’t make a save in the game.

“Even with us playing the way we were on offense, they still didn’t get a shot off and I was very happy with that,” said Sones, whose team outshot Somerville, 22-3. “I thought we played an excellent game it’s just unfortunate that it took 40 minutes to warm up and start playing well.”

Somervile coach Michael Kydonieus praised the Millers for their composure throughout the contest but expressed his discontent with the official for the way the game ended.

“I didn’t feel like it was a hand ball,” Somerville coach Michael Kydonieus said. “Millburn played a wonderful game. The fact that the game was decided by a poor judgment call by the official shouldn’t take away from their amazing performance.”

Up next for Millburn is Cranford, which recently defeated Scotch Plains-Fanwood 1-0 to capture the Union County Tournament crown Oct. 31. The Cougars (17-2-1) have 13 seniors on their roster and have been successful in limiting the opponent's scoring chances this season.

“They key with Cranford is you don’t want to concede anything,” said Sones, whose team won the Essex County title earlier this season. “They’re good in the back. I’d like to get an early goal on them, and see what happens when they come out and play.”