Girls soccer gears up for states

Written by Steven Buono
Friday, 30 October 2009 08:22

Shutout 1-0 by Westhill at home on Thursday, while needing to at least tie to find a spot in the top eight to make the FCIAC tournament, the Darien High girls soccer team now reloads for states.

Reloading is what the Wave will need to somehow do though, with three of its top players all injured, including its top scorer Kelly Mahoney (at right) and best defender Alex Budd, and Cat Thomas who hurt her ankle at Trumbull on Tuesday.

The final announcement of the conference playoffs seedings is pending, but the Wave needed to, at worst, tie the Vikings in order to leap from ninth place and out of the money into the playoff picture.

Gaining a point from the No. 2 team in the league that had only lost once all season, and without your top players, was always a tall order though.

And so, the result and reaction was a blunt one.

"We lost 1-0 and are out of FCIACs," said Wave coach Jon Bradley, whose team went to the FCIAC final in each of the last two years, losing first to Wilton then St. Joseph in 2008.

Darien (8-6-1) lost three of its last four games, playing mostly top tier teams down the stretch.

The state class championship tournament seedings will be set after the FCIAC final late next week.

(Darien Times/Steven Buono photo)