St. Joseph girls soccer won its 11th regular season game against Wilton 4-0.
The Cadets are coming off of a 10-0 win against Westhill, and it is the team’s 11th consecutive win, giving them an undefeated season to date, as well as their 11th successive win by four or more goals.
St. Joe’s continues not only to perform excellently under any circumstances, but also to present laudable margins within their scores.
The first half started off quickly and full of promise for St. Joe’s: Junior center forward Alexa Pino scored the first goal of the game and senior center attacking midfielder Taylor Jenkins scored a second goal shortly after, both within the first 30 minutes of the half.
Jenkins scored again with 9:01 remaining in the half, with an assist from junior left wing Sara Parker. Parker operated predominantly along the sidelines of the field, providing support to forward and midfield players such as Jenkins or Pino by passing and crossing the ball into threatening areas.
Pino’s position as center forward means that her job, not unlike a striker, is to try and push play forward within the attacking half in order to look to score. She certainly succeeded with this goal: during the last 16 minutes of the half, Pino took three corners and one shot, that was blocked, with just over a minute remaining.
As a whole, the team’s offense was extremely strong, emphasizing playing quick and making as many goal-scoring opportunities as possible.
At halftime, coach Jack Nogueira felt that “the first ten to fifteen minutes of the second half will be critical.”
He was correct: The beginning of the second half was a frenzy of shots and strong defense.
Junior goalkeeper Helena Kaczmarczyk saved two balls within the first eight minutes of the half. In tandem with the secure defensive end, the forwards and midfielders were able to create opportunities.
With 34:50 remaining, sophomore right wing Julia Nunes made a pass to Pino, who made a shot that got blocked. Pino took another corner with 33:17 minutes remaining. Less than a minute later, senior center back Maeve Matthews took a shot that bounced off of the upper post of the goal.
During the final 30 minutes of the second half, Wilton became more aggressive in their attacks. They had a corner at 26:44 that got kicked out over the top bar.
Both teams were creating as many opportunities as possible:
Parker took two shots, one with 24 minutes remaining and one with 14 minutes remaining, and Jenkins took a shot with 19 minutes remaining.
None of the shots were successful, but demonstrated what Coach Nogueira was urging for his team: “we have to figure out how to get our girls straight and ready to play.”
And ready to play they were: Pino scored her second goal of the game on a penalty kick with 24 minutes remaining.
With 11 minutes remaining, sophomore center midfielder Zoe Garces took a corner. The remaining ten minutes of the game were extremely fast-paced. St. Joe’s made two more shots, both of which were blocked, but their score of 4-0 secured them a win.
This game was a thrilling match up of two teams who are not afraid to make as much space as possible and to play aggressively.
St. Joe’s girls soccer have once again displayed their talent, inter-team communication, and promise for the rest of the season.