No matter what time of the year it is, New Canaan vs. Darien is always a matchup that both the teams and fans look forward to.
In girls soccer the meeting between the two rivals came in just the third game of each team’s 2015 season with both entering at 2-0 heading into Friday’s showdown at Conner Field.
And with a goal from sophomore forward Braeden Dial in the 14th minute of the game, the Rams took the early 1-0 lead and held on to extend the team’s winning streak to begin the season to three.
Sophomore Braeden Dial celebrates with a couple of her teammates on what turned out to be the game-winning goal in New Canaan’s 1-0 victory over Darien. Photo Credit: Amy Murphy Carroll
“It’s always a huge, huge game for us,” head coach Kirk Bamford told NewCanaanite.com. “It’s a rival and obviously the girls have grown up playing against them [Darien] in all sports, including soccer, throughout the years. So it’s always a big game that has a special edge to it, and it’s nice for us to come out on the winning end there today — and I think the girls absolutely deserved it. I think they applied themselves excellently from a competitive edge and execution standpoint.”
The game did not come without some drama in the closing minutes, however. With Darien down one and desperate to come up with an equalizer, they kept the ball in the defensive zone of New Canaan consistently, trying to attack at senior co-captain Katie Donovan’s net.
Many of those attempts were thwarted away by New Canaan defenders before even reaching Donovan — either by throwing their own bodies in the path of the ball to block an upcoming shot or by intercepting a Darien pass attempt and sending it out-of-bounds to run off as much clock as possible.
But after one such block went out-of-bounds off the Rams to give Darien a corner kick with just over a minute to play, Blue Wave senior Katherine Cronin sent one towards the crowd of traffic in front of the goal. Seconds later the ball emerged in the back of the net which made some in the crowd think the game was tied.
However, it was immediately ruled that the ball went off a Darien player’s hand and in, negating the goal and keeping the score 1-0 Rams.
“I just didn’t want the ball to get past me,” the senior keeper Donovan told NewCanaanite.com when recalling the corner. “Unfortunately I got kind of tugged down so I couldn’t reach and then I just saw the ball being hit into the goal, but then I knew [it was a handball]. It was just so obvious. And it was huge because this win was so big for us.”
The no-goal allowed Dial’s tally back in the 14th minute to hold up as the game-winner. With only three scoring chances combined for the two teams in the minutes leading up to that one, New Canaan decided that it was time to put some more pressure on Darien’s senior keeper, Kate Fiore.
The ball was sent up to Julia Ozimek out wide to the left. As she moved the ball forward, with two Darien defenders closing in on her, she saw her classmate Dial charging down the middle of the field and sent the ball across. The ball met with Dial’s leg, who booted it past Fiore for the 1-0 lead.
Braden Dial’s ball heading into the net past Darien goalkeeper Kate Fiore for the decisive goal. Photo Credit: Amy Murphy Carroll
“I thought it was really important to get a goal early,” Dial said to NewCanaanite.com. “We were beating them wide really well and when Julia crossed it I knew I had to get in front of the defender…and it worked.”
For the rest of the half, Darien had a couple chances to knot the game up at one. First was a chance from Cronin that Donovan poked over the net. Then with under ten minutes to go in the half fellow Blue Wave senior Grace Harmon sent one from about 15 yards out to the far-left post, bouncing off the iron and back towards Donovan who corralled the rebound to nullify any second chance.
Then with the lead still intact and the game dwindling down in time, while many teams would go on the defensive, Bamford told his squad to keep the pedal to the metal and go for it on offense to try for some insurance — which led to two quality chances in the final fifteen minutes of the game for the Rams.
The first came on a set play that started once Dial received the ball. She sent the ball up ahead for senior co-captain Sami Stewart who once she got to the ball, crossed it in front for junior forward Madison Starr. Starr just missed connecting on the feed perfectly as the ball narrowly went up top and over the crossbar. Then just a couple minutes later, senior Kylie Murphy put the ball on net from just under 10 yards out only to be robbed on a diving save from Fiore.
“Obviously Darien’s always a threat and a 1-0 lead at halftime is never a ‘home run’ type of lead that will get you to the end of the game,” said Bamford. “So second half we wanted to come out and be strong again and I feel the first 20-25 minutes we did that. Then as the game winded down we started to tweak things to insure that we didn’t give anything away. And if we had gotten an extra goal like we nearly did then that would’ve been the bonus.”
Still, the game came down those final couple of minutes and after the handball situation was settled, Darien still kept on trying to get one past Donovan. Their final attempt came with only six seconds remaining, Cronin took one last rip only to see the ball bounce off of senior co-captain Mia Carroll, her second block in the final five minutes.
Senior co-captain Caroline Gordon fighting for the ball against Katherine Cronin of Darien. Gordon and her fellow co-captain Mia Carroll anchored the strong defensive play in the Rams 1-0 win. Photo Credit: Amy Murphy Carroll
Donovan was grateful for her defense and for the win, knowing what such a win early in the season can do for a Rams squad with championship aspirations. “Definitely Darien stepped up the intensity in the final two minutes,” said Donovan. “They were scrambling to get a goal and our defenders kept their composure in fighting just to keep the ball out of the net. It’s a fantastic start to the season. It’s going to boost all our spirits without a doubt. I can’t think of a better way to start off.”
The Rams take to Conner Field again on Monday against Trinity Catholic at 4 p.m.