Greenwich, New Canaan girls soccer teams duel to a draw
Like the first meeting between the Greenwich and New Canaan girls soccer teams, Tuesday’s game was a back-and-forth affair in which each squad had its share of scoring chances.
Unlike the first matchup, Tuesday’s duel didn’t feature a victor.
The Cardinals and Rams dueled to a 1-1 draw at Cardinal Stadium in the FCIAC rivals’ second game against each other. They will meet one more time in this modified fall season.
“It took a while to for us to get going, we kind of sat back and were a little bit passive at the start of the game,” GHS coach Simon Rumbold said. “Then we started to turn the tide a little bit in the second 20 minutes of the first half.”
Trailing 1-0, the Cardinals knotted the score, thanks to senior co-captain captain/forward Sophia Bastek. With 6:49 remaining in the opening half, Bastek booted a shot from 35 yards out that hit the goal’s cross bar and found its way past New Canaan senior goalie Emma Gibbens, making it a 1-1 affair.
The Rams took a 1-0 advantage with a transition goal at the 24:13 mark of the opening half. New Canaan was paced offensively by seniors Emma Schuh and Abigail Van Dussen.
“We’ve been working hard in practice on things we wanted to execute in the game,” New Canaan coach Rich Hickson said. “We did that, but we were not not able to capitalize on our opportunities. I thought it was a fantastic performance for us. If we were able to take one or two of those chances would have been a different result.”
The Cardinals received another stellar effort in goal from sophomore goalie Isabella Gega, who made seven saves.
“Overall we started off really slow, but towards the end we started getting into it,” Gega said. “Compared to what we were doing in practice, we could have done much better. Our biggest thing is starting from the start and not being passive.”
Junior Skyler Scavo and senior Kristen Berzolla helped lead the Cards’ defensive effort.
“We just had to make sure we covered our area,” Scavo said. “We have to make sure we are connected in the midfield and that our passing is strong. We must apply what we do in practice in games.
Greenwich is 2-2-1 on the season. New Canaan, which beat Greenwich in the first meeting, 3-2, is 3-1-2.