Focused Cavs make most of quality passing against Bruins

The Archbishop Spalding girls soccer team had a sequence in Tuesday’s game against Broadneck that coaches dream about.

It had quality passing to get past midfield, followed by an ideal through-ball and a well-placed finish for a goal.

That it came in the game’s first minute told coach Ashly Kennedy her group was completely focused.

The No. 2 Cavaliers added a second goal minutes later and went on to claim a comfortable 5-0 home win over the No. 4 Bruins, who have been hit hard by injuries early in the season.

Senior Fifi Illyumodae scored the opening goal off a feed from Jessica Zimmerman and Zoe Lape added to the advantage soon after as goals came from five players for the Cavaliers. They improved to 3-0-1 going into Friday’s Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference opener against St. Mary’s.

Broadneck, which lost All-Metro midfielder Talia Gabarra to injury during the offseason and four other starters since, is 0-1-2 as it gets set for a key Anne Arundel County game against rival South River on Thursday.

Scoring an early goal can work wonders for a team’s confidence, and that was certainly the case for the Cavaliers on Tuesday.

“It definitely eases those first five-minute nerves, and it really establishes the momentum. And it was a great passing combination, so it was just a really good way to say ‘OK, we can do this, lets play our game,’ ” said senior midfielder Jenna Snead, who had a second-half goal.

Quickly down 2-0, the defending Class 4A champion Bruins didn’t buckle. They continued to work hard, mostly played on even terms for the rest of the first half and came out strong in the second.

After Spalding All-Metro goalie Jillian Savageau made a save on the Bruins’ best scoring chance five minutes into the second half, Snead made it 3-0 with 28:08 to play and the Cavaliers closed out the game with late goals from Lauren Korsnick and Zandy Gardner.

With 14 seniors and some quality underclassmen, the Cavaliers take a good feeling into Friday’s league opener.

“We do a lot of team bonding and this year is an extremely close team,” Savageau said. When we tell each other it’s a family, it truly is a family.”