The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Litchfield falls to Holy Cross in semis
NAUGATUCK — Two corner kicks and a breakaway added up to a 31 Class S semifinal win for No. 3 Holy Cross against No. 7 Litchfield Wednesday night at Naugatuck High School.
Crusader sophomore Devon Bushka put two of her firsthalf corners on the money for an assist on freshman Juliana Dane’s first goal of the game, curled in another one and passed upfield for Sophia Vescera’s breakaway froster, all in the first half.
“We made some early defensive mistakes. Then those two corner kicks put us on our heels,” said Litchfield coach Mike Wilson. “Otherwise, I thought we kept up with them and played very well.” The Cowgirls came to play. Two minutes into the game, Litchfield girls career scoring leader Christina Orsini was a collision short of posting the game’s first score as she and Crusader goalkeeper Tori Schaffner raced for a breakaway ball 20 yards out from the goal.
The collision left Orsini down with the wind knocked out of her.
Six minutes later, teammate Allie Davenport had the game’s first shot.
By the 11th minute, Holy Cross coach Phil Mongelluzzo was hollering to his team, “You’re being outworked, ladies.”
“We were nervous about their midfield speed and Orsini,” said Mongelluzzo, explaining the space his defenders were conceding.
“We made some adjustments at midfield and that’s when we got our goals,” Mongelluzzo said.
The space disappeared. Bushka launched her first corner kick a minute later. The ball sailed into the waiting crowd in front of the net. Dane bodied it in from three yards out.
Down 10, Litchfield keeper Molly Lennon raced out for the ball, then launched a huge punt downfield, tailormade for Cross’ concerns about the Cowgirl speed. Davenport sent a through ball forward to Orsini, breaking through the last defender to drill
a shot into the net for a 11 tie.
But two minutes later, Bushka set up for another corner kick. This one curled just inside the bottom of the near post for another Crusader goal.
From there, Holy Cross had the rest of the firsthalf shots including the clincher, seven minutes before the half.
Replaying Orsini’s earlier goal for Litchfield, midfielder Bushka sent a pass ahead to Vescera, sidestepping the last Cowgirl defender for a clear
shot to the net.
The 31 score held for another 40 minutes, but only thanks to terrific saves on both sides.
Litchfield defender Roxanne Snowden raced in to save a shot rolling past Lennon in the ninth minute. Litchfield threatened hard in the 13th minute off another great punt by Lennon. A Crusader shot to an open net was wide left 22 minutes in. Vescera pounded a shot off Lennon on the ground in the 26th. Schaffner picked the ball out of a scrum in front of her net in the 31st.
“We wanted to be the number one seed in the NVL Tournament and
now we want to get the monkey off our back in the state finals,” said Coach Mongelluzzo.
NVL champion Holy Cross lost a Class S overtime final to Old Lyme two years ago. Now they get a second chance against the fourtime defending champions, Saturday at New Britain’s Veterans Stadium at 10 a.m.