Brutal luck: Much injured Wave girls soccer needs point today to make FCIAC playoffs

Written by Steven Buono
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 19:04

It is hard to come up with a Blue Wave team this decade that has suffered from injury, or illness, to the brutal extent that the girls soccer squad has seen this season.

At the height of the injury/sickness calamity, in numbers alone, Darien has had to do without six starters.

Now, at the depths of doing without, the Wave goes into its biggest final game of a season in years without three standout senior captains — all hurt.

Leading scorer Kelly Mahoney (ACL) is out for the season — damaged on Friday vs. Ridgefield — Alex Budd (calf), Darien’s best defenseman is still out, and Cat Thomas (ankle) went down at Trumbull on Tuesday.

Still, the Wave came through with a must win in its FCIAC playoffs drive beating the Eagles 2-0 as Charlotte Phillips got the shutout making seven saves.

“We’re alive,” said Darien coach Jon Bradley. “We need a tie (today).”

The Wave plays a scorching hot squad in Westhill (11-1-2), second FCIAC seed, in the regular season finale 4 p.m. at home today.

“Just to get in we need a tie,” added Bradley, who also said a win could find Darien as high as sixth seed for the conference championship tournament that begins Saturday, depending upon how other teams also finish up.

Finishing against Trumbull were Liz Calby and Georgie Highton with a goal apiece as Darien climbed to 8-5-1.

“Two good goals,” said Bradley whose team has made states. “Good finishes from both girls.”

Trumbull dropped to 4-7-3.

Darien, scoring in each half, put 10 shots on goal.

Rachel Calligan and Highton added assists.

Ludlowe, Warde and Staples are battling with DHS for the late playoff berths, but, Darien’s fate is in its own hands.

“It’s not down to them, it’s down to us,” Bradley said. “It actually doesn’t make any difference. We’ll either be ninth, or six. Anywhere in that range.”

The big difference being that only the top eight make the cut. And as things stand Darien is out of a playoffs spot.

“We’re sitting in ninth,” Bradley said. “If we tie we’ll jump three spots, which is amazing.”

The way the Wave pulled together under the undermanned circumstances at Trumbull, grabbing that one point from the mighty Vikings is not out of sight.

“They played well (Tuesday),” said Bradley. “It definitely doesn’t help losing another captain injured. So it was a good win.”

Bradley cited Marieke Bravo as having a top game and Meredith Jordan as starring as well.

“But overall, it was just a good team effort,” Bradley said. “We changed a few things that seemed to work.”

Darien came up with a new formation and game plan.

“And the girls just executed it,” he said. “We’re just not going to give them any chance to possess the ball. We attacked them from the beginning, and it worked out.

“And hopefully we can carry it through to (Thursday).”

Has he seen such a high stakes finish to a season any time before for the Wave?

“No, never like this,” Bradley said.

How do you go about bouncing a No. 2 team?

“We’ve just got to play our game, and not worry about them,” Bradley said. “And be mistake-free. If we play a mistake-free game like we did against Trumbull, then, we might just pull it out of the bag.”