By Ron Ragozzino, Special to the
Courier:
Winning close games
comes down to defense. For the Valley Warriors, a defensive lapse cost them a
game and for the Haddam-Killingworth Cougars, the defense earned them the W. In
an up-and-down battle, the HK girls’ soccer team defeated Valley 2-1 on Siobhan
Blancaflor’s late goal in the second half.
In the 73rd minute,
Blancaflor dribbled past the defense and took a shot. Valley goaltender Lizzy
O’Connor came up with the save, but the ball trickled away from her and as she
tried to make a diving attempt, the ball went to Allie Rand who passed it back
to Blancaflor, as she chipped it over the goalie’s head for the 2-1 victory.
“We didn’t play
particularly great, but we played good enough to win,” Haddam-Killingworth
Coach Eric Grant said. “The defense came up big in some spots.”
Valley Coach Rob
Shepard said he couldn’t be more satisfied with the team’s performance despite
the outcome.
“We dominated the
whole game and had the ball on their side of the field most of the game,”
Shepard said. “We just couldn’t score. Both teams played well, we played hard.
Blancaflor created a lot of opportunities for the team and that’s how they
scored their two goals.”
Valley had multiple
chances to tie the game late, but Cougars’ goalie Alyssa Hunt came up with big
saves. Right after Blancaflor’s goal, the Warriors attacked and Chelsea Crehan
took a shot, but Hunt made the save. In the 78th minute Mary McGee’s shot went
wide left. A minute later, Carolyn Learned took a low shot, but Hunt saved the
ball. In the final minute, Megan Perkins took a corner kick from the left side,
but the ball went right to Hunt, who made the save as the whistle blew.
In the second half,
HK didn’t have many chances to score as the Cougars only recorded three shots,
but they made good on one of those chances with Blancaflor’s goal.
HK was first to
score in the game as well as Jessica Moore took a corner kick from the right
side and angled the ball high 17 minutes into the first half. As the ball was
curving towards the net, O’Connor tried to make a jumping save, but the ball
hit her hand and crossed the line for the goal.
Valley was quick to
respond as five minutes later, Crehan took a shot from the left side of the 18
and Hunt came away with a save, but the ball rolled right in front of the net
and Hillary Kuzaro put the rebound in to tie it 1-1.
“We had defensive
lapses and HK took advantage of it and scored both times,” said Shepard, whose
team owns a 3-4 record. “We need to finish our shots better and we weren’t
getting to shots in the box when we needed to. We were too cute with the ball
at times, we just need to be more aggressive and go to the ball better.”
Grant said the team
still needs to work on some things for the team to get better for the rest of
the season.
“Our touch passes were
terrible,” said Grant, whose team improved to 5-2. “We need to work on pressure
as Valley put on a lot of pressure on us and we couldn’t handle it, we need our
midfielders to help out on offense and most importantly we have a lot of
injuries, so we need to stay healthy the rest of the season.”
Later in the week on
Oct. 4, the Warriors topped Westbrook 2-1 at home. Freshman Chelsea Cook scored
both goals for Valley, including the game-winner with 16 minutes left in the
second half, which were her first varsity goals.
“The game was a real battle and both teams played physical,” said Shepard. “It
just came down to us being able to put one more goal in the net than they did
and you have to give Westbrook credit for coming in and playing the game they
played against us tonight.”
Game at a Glance
Sept. 30: Haddam
Killingworth 2, Valley 1
On the Field
• Siobhan Blancaflor
(HK): goal, 6 shots
• Allie Rand (HK):
assist
• Jessica Moore
(HK): goal,
• Chelsea Crehan
(V): assist, 3 shots
• Hillary Kuzaro
(V): goal
• Carolyn Learned
(V): 3 shots
• HK: 13 shots
• Valley: 13 shots
In the Net
• Alyssa Hunt (HK):
9 saves
• Lizzy O’Connor
(V): 8 saves