Little Falls 2, Notre Dame 0
Waterville 3, Brookfield 2
Went out to Waterville Wednesday for the opening round of the annual Brothertown Optimist Tournament - girls soccer installation. Got there 20 minutes into LF/Notre Dame, left with 10 minutes to go in Brookfield/Waterville. Left without much to talk about.
I guess what I can take from it is Little Falls looks pretty tough, and Brookfield has a lot of young pieces that might make them interesting in D.. in a couple years. Little Falls was completely dominant throughout the entire game. Over the 60 minutes I saw, Notre Dame got within 40 yards of goal 3 times. Most of the play was between midfield and the 18 on Little Falls' attacking side, but they only ended up with those 2 goals to show for it - one from Katelyn Parese with 5:08 in the first half, where she tapped the ball through on an effective cross, and an insurance goal from Sarah Bruins off a Nicole Foti pass with 12:56 left to play. The MVT Rudolph numbers showed how dominant they were in possession and attack, though. From 20 minutes left in the first half on, Little Falls took 14 shots. Notre Dame took... well, 14 less than that. Mountie keeper Cheyenne Rivenburg touched the ball twice the whole time, neither of them being saves. Notre Dame's keeper, between saves and non-save touches, saw the ball 13 times. The Lady Jugglers have low numbers (13, to be exact), and their soccer program has left a lot to be desired since the graduation of the last Reina, so I'm not sure if this says more about how tough of an out Little Falls will be in their league this season or about how much ND is struggling. We'll see as the season progresses.
Onto Brookfield/Waterville. Waterville's Indians looked like the class of the 2 squads.. in warmups. Good ball skill, possession, etc. However, the young Beavers came to play. As a matter of fact, they scored first, and it took until the beginning of the 2nd half for Waterville to grab the lead. Waterville had many more chances, but Brookfield made good with theirs early. Abby Reilly started the scoring just over 13 minutes into the game, poking one from about 20 yards out on the left side above the Waterville GK and into the side of the net. It didn't take long for Waterville to respond. A Brookfield defender committed a no-no - protected her face with her hands when a ball was coming at it. Too bad she was inside the 18. Penalty kick time... and Hannah Gray converted easily with 22:44 showing on the clock. Before I even had time to relax, Brookfield grabbed the lead one more time. There was commotion in front of the net, and Courtney Maine got her foot on the ball and it entered the promised land - a whole 2:19 after the game was tied. However, H2Oville was able to tie it up again with 9:44 left in the 1st half. Shannon Stromeyer put one through off a cross from Alexis Becker. We went into half tied, even though at that point, Waterville outshot Brookfield 14-4. Waterville's GK made no saves and touched the ball twice, where Brookfield GK Brooke Terrier made 7 legitimate first half saves, including 2 exceptional ones over the course of a minute while up 2-1. It didn't take long for Waterville to get that lead in the 2nd half - with 34:30 left, they took the lead on a play much like the one that tied it up for them. Left 10 minutes early, but nothing changed, and Waterville picked up the 3-2 W. They outshot Brookfield 19-4 while I was there, but Brooke Terrier was able to stave off a lot of that pressure by making 10 saves.
Brookfield will play Notre Dame in the Brothertown Optimist Consolation game Saturday around 1:00, and Waterville and Little Falls will take the field for the championship game at 5:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment