SG Soccer: Early Season Recap

 

It all started with the 2023 edition of the Stanstead Invitational Tournament (aka the Dyke ‘N’ Friends) on Saturday. Over the last four decades, the SIT has become not only an annual highlight for our players and fans, but the visiting schools REALLY love it. It is such a friendly and competitive day, early in everyone’s season, and we put on such a good show (thank you Mr. Spirk!) with our fields and our dining hall and our welcoming community, that schools jockey with each other every year for a spot in the draw. And once again, the SIT did not disappoint, with 8 girls teams and 4 boys teams filling our picturesque campus with the sights and sounds of competition and camaraderie. (BTW, no less than 3(!) visiting girls expressed serious interest in enrolling in SC next year – THAT is the power of the Dyke ‘N’ Friends).

 

In terms of the soccer, we did some good things over the course of our three games (7-0 vs Trafalgar, 0-1 vs Sacred Heart, and 0-3 vs LCC);

Now, while the SIT is a fun day, the real season begins with ETIAC league play, and that started on the following Monday against our oldest rivals, BCS, i.e. the ideal way to start The Chase for The Banner:

 

Natalia, starting at offensive mid, opened the scoring with a rocket from the top of the box, and that opened the floodgates, i.e. next came Camryn on a penalty shot after being tripped in the box (and sliding/diving 6 feet forward quite professionally I might add!), then Camryn again off a nice switch from Jana, and finally Carolyn Berkling-Drouin to Nyakah Pierre to Natalia to make it 4-0 by halftime. The Red & White Machine was rolling, and BCS had no way to stop it.

 

The second half, despite fewer goals, also had its moments. Rookie Annie LaMantia was confidently solid in goal. Gabriela Leroux looked comfortable at defensive midfield. Jadin Bingham – with Avah’s helpful leadership – improved throughout the game at right defense. Lana Peasley had two good chances that barely missed. Keshia was such a dominant ball-winner and distributor at defensive mid that she earned Player Of The Game honours. And Addy Pierce had both 1) the Play Of The Game AND 2) the Quote Of The Week^.

 

POTG:  Addy asks to take a corner kick from the right side and proceeds to score DIRECTLY into the top left corner without a player or goalie touching it!

 

QOTW:  When asked in the locker room afterwards if she’d ever done something that crazy before, she coolly responded, “Yeah, a lot.”

 

Final score 5-0 for your Spartans, and we left our field with good vibes, i.e. we’d improved our offensive throw-ins, our throw-in coverage, our midfield shape, and, most importantly, our overcrowding. But we couldn’t celebrate for long, because a mere 22 hours later…

 

…we were warming up for our second league game vs Massey-Vanier. On a dreary, rainy day. But I was thrilled with our warmup, as we ignored the rain and got down to serious business right away – just ask Maddie who was a muddy/drenched mess BEFORE the opening whistle!

 

Our energetic warmup resulted in a great start to the game. MVR is a good team, with skilled midfielders and tough defenders, but for the first 60 minutes we outclassed them. Gloria notched the first goal of the game off a Camryn cross, Natalia followed with a sublime direct kick around the wall, our positioning was much improved, everyone played with purpose, and Player Of The Game Natalia Chenier was everywhere, presenting for her teammates and consistently making the right read and orchestrating the offense. Kudos also go to Valerie Lin for seamlessly moving over to left defense from her usual home on the right, to Naya for trying right defense for the first time ever (and doing a solid job), and to Sofia Martinez for her fine positional play at defensive mid.

 

In fact, the first 60 minutes of this game was so good, let’s give out some awards:

 

Throw-My-Umbrella Play Of The Game: Keshia works the ball to Natalia, who draws the defense in before finding Gloria on the right wing, who advances, draws the wing defender, steps over the ball and sends a short pass to Natalia, who one-times a perfect little thru ball to Jade Wilson, who runs on, collects and coolly finishes bottom left to make it 3-0. The prettiest Spartan goal I’ve seen in years.

 

Save Of The Game #1: Maddie on a low drive labelled for the bottom left corner. Perfect dive. Perfect form. No rebound.

 

Save Of The Game #2:  The puddle (Colby ghost?) in Maddie’s net that stopped a Vikings shot from crossing the line. Hey, that’s what home field advantage is all about!

 

Best Swimmer: Camryn, doing the backstroke in a big puddle on the field during the game.

 

And finally, the Biggest Smile Award: Jade, after scoring her first goal of the season on the “umbrella” play mentioned above, I tell ya, she looked like an 8-year old on Christmas morning!

 

Now, I haven’t talked about the last 20 minutes yet, as there’s not much to say except we ran out of gas. It was the end of a long stretch of a lot of soccer, we were beat, and MVR had the clear edge in play. But thanks to the defense we hung on for the critical 3-1 win, putting us exactly where we want to be – undefeated – in prime position for The Chase for The Banner.

 

Whose house did we just defend? OUR HOUSE! But now we go on the road, with three straight ETIAC road games followed by the CAIS National Tournament in Toronto. It will be 22 days before we play in front of our home fans again. Over three weeks. The time of Our House is suspended. It is now the time of the Road Warriors. Here we go…

Coaches Van Dyke & Kirby