Cards advance in LLs, blank Middletown 4-0

Written by Paul Silverfarb
Thursday, 12 November 2009 00:54

With the thoughts of last season’s Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference class LL early exit still etched in their minds, the Greenwich High School girls soccer team opened this year’s class LL tournament run in grand fashion Monday afternoon.

Although it wasn’t the cleanest game the Cardinals played this season, Greenwich, seeded ninth in the class LL tournament, was able to bounce No. 24 seed Middletown High School 4-0 and advance to the second round.

“It’s nice to get into that second round because we didn’t do that last year,” Greenwich head coach Danny Simpson said. “It seemed like a long week since we lost to Ridgefield last week. We had to heal the girls to get ready for today and get them back out there again. They looked a little rusty but hopefully we knocked the rust off and are ready for Wednesday’s game.”

Last season, Big Red traveled to Hall High School and lost in overtime 2-1 in the opening round of the state tournament. This time around, Greenwich was seeded high enough to earn a home match and took full advantage of that against Middletown Monday.

“With a home game this year, we really wanted to come out here and redeem ourselves from last year,” sophomore Shannon Colligan said. “We lost in the first round of states and that was a huge disappointment. I was a freshman then, so this was my first time winning a state tournament game. It feels great to be out here and play well.”

After falling to Ridgefield in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference semifinal game last week, the Cardinals were ready to get the class LL tournament rolling. Less than seven minutes into its game Monday afternoon, senior Courtney Callahan took the ball from sophomore Tori Dunster and found the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. Nearly 10 minutes later, Greenwich got back on the scoreboard. On a penalty kick, sophomore Shannon Colligan took the shot and blasted it home for the two-goal lead.

“Having all of our fans here and having the game played right after school was great,” Colligan said. “The atmosphere was definitely on our side. We practice on this field all the time, so we know our strengths of getting the ball wide and using the width of the field. I felt pretty well. I don’t think we played our best, but I think we’re just getting back into our routine.”

Greenwich finished the scoring in the first half with 13:08 to play, when junior Meghan Hayden got the unassisted goal to give the Cards a 3-0 halftime lead.

“I didn’t think we played particularly well, but we were schooled enough in doing the right things at the right times,” Greenwich head coach Danny Simpson said. “Obviously going in 3-0 at halftime when you don’t think you played well is a nice situation. Two years ago we played great against Trumbull and lost.”

Hayden got her second goal of the game with 22:37 to play in the second half, as she took the assist from Callahan and beat the Middletown goalie to the right corner of the net for the 4-0 lead.

“I felt the girls took some nice chances,” Simpson said. “We missed a couple of nice plays, but we were doing well with the 3-0 lead. In the second half we asked the girls to raise their level of play because if you want to win in this tournament, you can’t give the ball away as easy as we did. Our passing was a little off.”

Big Red finished the game with 21 shots compared to Middletown’s nine. Freshman Taylor Bucklin and senior Kelsey Shea split time in net, with Bucklin saving two shots and Shea making five saves.

“Greenwich is a very organized team,” Middletown head coach Rob Smernoff said. “They all know where to go and they all have the skills to make the plays when they’re there. It’s easy to tell someone where to go, but to then go execute it in those spots is very impressive. I think Greenwich runs a first-class program and you can tell that from the moment we got here. They are as good as any team we’ve played this year.”

For Smernoff, competing at the state tournament hasn’t been the kindest to his team recently. After not appearing in the state tournament for 10 years, Middletown earned a spot in last year’s tournament but was forced to play powerhouse Fairfield Warde High School in its opening round. This year the team made it back to the class LL tourney, but ended up playing the Cardinals, another FCIAC foe.

“You get the draw and all you’re hoping for is that you don’t want to face an FCIAC school first,” Smernoff said. “Of course that’s what happened again this year.”

Smernoff said he was well aware of the challenges his team was going to face this season. After last year’s tournament appearance, Middletown graduated eight of its top 12 players, with seven of them three-year starters.

“We knew that this was going to be a young team this year,” Smernoff said. “It’s been a nice surprise that we’re here. Certainly we came here trying to get a win, but we’re pleased with the progress we’ve made and most of the kids that played today will be here two or three more years. That’s great for the program.”

With the victory, Greenwich earned a spot in the second round of the class LL tournament and traveled up to eighth-seeded Cheshire High School yesterday afternoon. Results were unavailable at press time. If Greenwich pulled off the upset, they would face the winner of the Glastonbury versus Staples game tomorrow at a site to be announced.

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