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New Canaan’s U11 Girls Red soccer team celebrates their CT Cup semi-final victory against Ridgefield on Saturday. Contributed photo
New Canaan’s U11 Girls Red to Battle Middlebury FC in CT Cup Championship
From a field of 66 teams in the CT Cup’s U11 age group, only four remained this past weekend to square off in two semi-final games.
Playing at home Saturday in front of a large crowd, New Canaan’s U11 Girls Red soccer team faced Ridgefield Black to determine who would be heading to the finals from their side of the bracket. In their most impressive victory this season, New Canaan defeated Ridgefield by a score of 2-0, earning them a trip to the CT Cup finals on Saturday, Nov. 1st, in Farmington. They will face Middlebury FC in the championship game.
First half action was back and forth, with a lot of the plays being made around the mid-field. While the front line squad—Kiki Brainard, Jade Lowe, Dillyn Patten and Caitlin Tully—applied great pressure on the ball and consistently challenged the Ridgefield defense, outstanding goalkeeping denied New Canaan any scoring opportunities in the half.
Equally tough, however, was the New Canaan defense, led by the impenetrable Kaleigh Harden and rotating teammates Emma Lamaker, Katie Perlitz, Angelica Megdanis and Madeleine McLaughlin. They did their job by preventing breakaways to the goal and any easy scoring opportunities for Ridgefield. The half would end scoreless.
With the gravity of the situation not lost on the U11 girls or their coach, Gwyn Jones, New Canaan set in motion a plan to dominate second half action with superior ball control, unrelenting pressure on the defense and unselfish teamwork. Poise and patience finally paid off when Brainard slipped one by the Ridgefield keeper in a stunning display of precision and control. A few minutes later, it would be Patten’s turn to score, adding a much-needed insurance goal for New Canaan. New Canaan keeper Ashley Barton remained calm and composed throughout the game and preserved the shut out.
New Canaan’s weekend was not over with the dramatic win against Ridgefield, as they had to face Wilton Blue on Sunday in a regular season game.
Having already beaten Wilton twice this season at home, the U11 girls were confident in their chances to defeat them one more time. With Jade Lowe in goal and Harden, McLaughlin, Avery Minter and Grace Crowell holding Wilton at bay in New Canaan territory, mid-fielders Hadley Beiles and Hollis Mulry put on another impressive show of teamwork and moved the ball beautifully around the field. New Canaan’s first goal was scored by Kiki Brainard who lobbed it gracefully from the corner of the field.
New Canaan continued to be in command during the second half, with Katie Perlitz sneaking one in the net off a dazzling cross by Brainard. Wilton immediately answered back with their only goal of the game, a high shot that just brushed the fingertips of keeper Madeleine McLaughlin. Later in the half, Perlitz would find the net again with a breakaway shot on goal; and Caitlin Tully would add a fourth goal after finishing a gorgeous pass sequence from Lowe. The 4-1 victory against Wilton keeps New Canaan in first place of the Southwest District A Division.
In addition to the CT Cup finals next Saturday, New Canaan faces the Fairfield Riptides on Sunday, Nov. 2, in its last regular season game before the division playoffs.
Katie Quill controls the ball during New Canaan’s win against Fairfield this past Sunday. Contributed photo
New Canaan U9 Girls Beat Fairfield 4-1
The New Canaan U9 Girls Red team started out slow, but they stepped up their play in the second half, and ultimately defeated Fairfield 4-1.
During 30 minutes of evenly matched play, Katie Quill, Kelly Polacek, and Fiona Mueller generated multiple offensive drives up the sideline, but the U9 Red could not capitalize and score. Goalie Lila Volpe protected New Canaan’s net, saving several hard shots on goal, and kept the game scoreless at the end of the first half.
New Canaan came out much stronger in the second half, and scored early when Summer Achilles made a well-timed pass through Fairfield’s defense and connected with Lexie Tully who quickly redirected the ball past the goalie.
Not long after, Tully beat the defense again, this time passing to Polacek, who fired a quick strike to the corner of the goal.
Fairfield managed to tally one goal off a scramble in front of the net. However, New Canaan found its stride, and dominated the ball for the rest of the game. On defense, Tema Wagner, Devon Russell, Isabel Cavanagh, and Alexandra Gelvin consistently out hustled Fairfield’s offense, turned the ball around, and made several great passes up the field. Maggie Murphy did a fantastic job in goal saving several shots and distributing the ball very quickly out of New Canaan’s defensive zone.
Tully answered next by receiving a cross from Kailee See and delivered a sliding shot past the goalie.
Ava Pertusiello sealed the win by weaving through Fairfield’s defense on a breakaway, and finished with a hard shot to the corner of the net to improve the score 4-1.
New Canaan Girls U11 Black Soccer Blow Away Weston 6-1
New Canaan Girls U11 Black soccer hit the road on a gusty day for their second meeting of the season with Weston Gold.
The New Canaan girls came out strong with sustained pressure in the Weston end and more then their share of quality scoring chances. But it would be Weston who got on the board first with a strong shot off a corner kick, stunning the large crowd of New Canaan supporters.
New Canaan shook off that momentary set back and answered with a goal by Zoe Walker who followed up on a rebound from a strong shot by Anna Barnard. Bella Licata stood tall in net and kept the score to 1-1 at the end of the half.
The second half was all New Canaan, whose girls once again, proved themselves to be a dominant second half team. Meghan Driscoll would get the ball rolling with a goal from a pretty feed by Jasmine Mansourov. Next, Zoe Walker added to her tally on the day following up on Driscoll’s rebound. Then, Maiah Oyekanmi—returning from the game after being temporarily sidelined with a bloody nose sustained on a rough play—went coast to coast to make the score 4-1.
Weston pushed back and tried to get the ball to their star player, but over and over the defensive of Oyekanmi, Kiera Mastey, Carolyn Baran and Rhyan Luther shut her down.
When Weston was able to break through they got a big heaping helping of Lauren Doherty in net, who was active and aggressive. New Canaan showed its ability to control the ball and make precision passes through mid-field as Abbie Gaudreau, Grace Flatow, Kitty Rawlings-Green and McKenna Usher showed their offensive prowess by continually pushing the ball back in front of the Weston net.
Anna Barnard was next to score from a sweet set up by Jasmine Mansourov. The final goal came from a rush where New Canaan crashed the net causing the chaos that led to Walker putting the icing on the cake and earning her the hat trick.
U9 Boys Black Rout Trumbull United Panthers 7-1
New Canaan Boys U9 Black arrived at Sunday’s game, determined to win and from the first kick, dominated the play on the field.
Pressing through Trumbull’s defense, the offensive line of Nate Ehrlich, Benji Sturke and game captain Luke Frame put intense pressure on the goal and was able to capitalize on the return of a goal kick with some targeted passes and a quick line drive from the right by Ehrlich.
Almost immediately, the defensive line of Chase Abbott, Enzo Fredricks, Nathan Sieckhaus and Nate Markin captured the ball and returned it to the offense. New Canaan looked especially adept at moving the ball up the sidelines and skillfully centering the ball for shots on goal.
After just such a nice center cross, Alex Werner scored the second goal.
A beautiful, long throw in from midfielder Abbott set up Werner for another goal and he capped the first half with a hat trick and New Canaan lead 4-0.
Matthew Stimpson, Fletcher Heron, Nis Tuga and Finn Greiner kept up the intense pressure on the Trumbull goal in the second half. Several shots missed by mere inches and after an especially lively dual for ball ownership, Greiner scored.
Again the defense kept feeding the ball back to the offense and Fredericks passed to Grenier for another goal.
With New Canaan up 6-0, Trumbull retaliated, to score on a direct kick. Determined to make it Trumbull’s last goal, Fredericks threaded Trumbull’s defense and scored goal seven.
U-9 Girls Black Soccer Notches 6-0 Win Over Trumbull
The Girls U-9 Black team showed its power with an impressive 6-0 victory over Trumbull on Sunday, Oct. 26.
Conditions were perfect for an afternoon soccer game in sunny Trumbull.
New Canaan jumped out to a quick lead with an unassisted goal by Sloane Griffiths five minutes into the game.
Less than four minutes later, New Canaan grew the lead to 2-0 with a goal by Celia Parkhill, assisted by Sloane Griffiths.
The New Canaan defense was rock-solid during the first half, anchored by strong, gutsy performances from Lily Auerbach and Claire Pellegrino. The defense was so strong, in fact, Trumbull was not able to get a shot on goal during the first half.
Five minutes into the second half, Hadley Walker scored on an assist from Lauryn Lee to make the score 3-0 in favor of New Canaan.
And within a six-minute span, Lauryn Lee piled on two unassisted goals as she broke free at midfield to bring the score to 5-0.
During the second half, Sophie Brauweiler came up with big saves to keep the shutout alive and there were strong performances on offense by Charlotte Walter and Maeve Hibbert.
Logan Severance put the final goal in the net with an assist from Lauryn Lee to make the score 6-0 for a big win for U-9 New Canaan Black. This New Canaan team takes on Wilton Silver on Nov. 2.