Rockets fall in season opener

Bay’s season opener was one to forget.

The Rockets fell to the Gilmour Academy Lancers, 3-0, at Bay High School on Aug. 24.

The Rockets (0-1-0) showed good ball movement and had great goalie play from senior Gigi Merk as she compiled 15 saves in the contest. Gilmour (2-10) showed strong possession throughout the game, particularly in the first half, to keep the ball away from Bay’s offense.

The Rockets had several scoring opportunities in the first half but couldn’t capitalize on them. They had a penalty kick in the 13th minute that was saved by the goalie, a near miss in the 22nd minute and a corner kick in the 24th minute that nearly missed the goal and sailed just wide.

“We’ve got some things to work on but we saw some good things out there, it’s our first game and they’ve played four so we’ll get there,” Bay head coach Beth English said. “We’re a young team.”

The Lancers had a few early scoring opportunities that they didn’t finish off. However, they scored two goals late in the first half to take a 2-0 lead heading into halftime. Their first goal came in the 31st minute when Merk mishandled a shot and Gilmour tapped it in. Their second goal of the half came in the 37th minute when Allie Breen ripped a shot past Merk.

“I saw an open opportunity to take my one vs. one with the goalie and go,” Breen said. “I think my team really helped with playing those long balls down and I think we did a really good job connecting through the outside and the middle to make those opportunities for the goals.”

In the second half, the Lancers kept up their strong display of possession and scored their third goal of the contest in the 63rd minute when Sami Sargi scored from close range.

“I think it was good team management overall and game management as well,” Gilmour head coach Anton Trifonovs said. “I was proud of how we were able to translate and manage the game. In the first half, it was the high pressure and in the second half, we dropped and invited Bay to come to us. We were able to score a third goal and that probably determined the overall ending result. It was a good game and we will go back and analyze some positives and negatives and we will get ready for the next match.”

Breen is using this game as motivation after the Lancers lost to the Rockets last season.

“I think it’s really motivating to know that we have come this far because last year we didn’t beat them,” Breen said. “This is a big step forward in our program so we know we can do this in future games.”

The Rockets didn’t possess the ball much throughout the second half, however, Merk racked up 15 saves.

“I think we played well out of the back and we completed a lot of connecting passes,” Merk said. “We didn’t try and force the ball too much and we connected pretty well throughout the midfield.”

Merk and her teammates are going to use this game as a learning experience.

“We are mostly just trying to learn from this game and keep progressing throughout the season,” Merk said. “There are many mistakes that we need to fix because it’s still close to preseason so we are just trying to improve.”

Up next, Bay plays at Avon on Aug. 26 while Gilmour plays at Magnificat on Aug. 29.