[The following youth sports game summaries and photos were submitted by parents of the New Canaan Soccer Association. Please forward your own write-ups to editor@newcanaanite.com for publication on the site and visibility in our daily newsletter, Facebook page and Twitter feed.]
New Canaan defender Kate Caione shuts down the Stamford offense for the New Canaan Soccer Association U10 Red Team. Contributed photo
New Canaan Soccer Girls U10 Red Team Weathers the Storm vs. Stamford
The Stamford Hurricane girls rolled into New Canaan looking to extend their undefeated season, but were reduced to a mere tropical storm Sunday by the New Canaan squad.
The New Canaan Soccer Girls U10 Red Team extended its season record by notching a 4-1 victory.
The game opened with an even exchange of offense and defense, but the momentum shifted toward the New Canaan side. The Red began the scoring when Ellie Gallois stole the ball from the Hurricane defense and delivered it into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. Minutes later, Katie Polacek drove the ball deep into the Stamford zone and bent an incredible shot past the Stamford goalie to make it 2-0.
The New Canaan defense shut down the Hurricane’s advances and Ava Gizzie was perfect tending the goal as the half ended.
The second half opened with New Canaan dominating the field position and possession of the ball. Once again the defense held strong and Caroline Underwood made multiple saves in the goal. Then it was time for Katie Polacek again as she added to her tally for the day and blasted another shot into the goal.
With the score 3-0, New Canaan kept up the pressure and came up just short of the shut-out when Stamford managed to score late in the second half. However, the goal would be too little too late for the Hurricanes and the game ended in a 3-1 New Canaan victory.
New Canaan 7th Grade Red Field Hockey braved the elements this weekend to notch a victory vs. Fairfield. Contributed photo
New Canaan 7th Grade Red Field Hockey Wins 2-1 and Leaves New Fairfield All Wet
On a day that was more fit for frogs than field hockey players, the girls of New Canaan’s 7th Grade Red team braved heavy rain to emerge victorious in New Fairfield.
New Canaan controlled the play for most of the first half, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Then, hard work in front of the New Fairfield goal by Claire Flatow and Mia Mitchell to get the ball to Sadie Slatterty paid off for their first goal of the game.
New Fairfield wasn’t about to give up, but strong defensive play by Haley Leddy, great hustle to get to loose balls by Alex Pepe and superior ball control by Nicole Demers kept them at bay.
The second half saw more strong offensive pressure from New Canaan forwards Emily Knight and Fallon Arnone, but they were still searching for that elusive second goal. Their chance finally came when Estelle Asker in-bounded the ball on a corner and then hustled to get the ball back and score. New Fairfield would come back down the field to score, but neither they nor the rain had enough to extinguish this red hot New Canaan team.
New Canaan’s U11 Girls Red huddle up before the opening whistle in a show of solidarity. Contributed photo
U11 Girls Red Headed to Quarterfinals in CT Cup Tournament
New Canaan’s U11 Girls Red soccer team has advanced to the quarterfinal round of the CT Cup tournament after a weekend of stormy weather and unexpected controversy.
Scheduled to play their third round game against Trumbull United Dynamite at Saxe on Saturday, the decision was made to play despite the heavy rain that had been falling since early morning.
Undeterred by the adverse conditions, New Canaan came out with smiles on their faces ready for the challenge ahead. On a slippery field with puddles in front of both goals, the U11 girls began to dominate the action moving the ball well around the field with their accurate passing and incredible footwork. Leading the charge was the very capable Dillyn Patten who scored New Canaan’s only goal of the first half.
The defensive squad led by Kaleigh Harden, Emma Lamaker and Katie Perlitz, as well as keeper Caitlyn Tully, held tough and denied Trumbull any scoring opportunities in the half.
As the rain continued to fall and conditions worsened, New Canaan battled on in the second half finding their stride and going on the offensive. Four more goals would be added to the scoreboard for the home team with Grace Crowell, Jade Lowe, Caitlyn Tully and Harden each finding the net.
The clean sheet was secured by the composed and confident keeper Madeleine McLaughlin.
With seven minutes left to play, the referee decided to call the game short with both coaches in agreement. New Canaan’s 5-0 victory would be short-lived when shortly after the game Trumbull protested the win citing Cup rules that an “abandoned game” has to be replayed on the visitor’s home field the next day.
Fueled by the frustration of having to replay a game they had already won, the U11 girls traveled to Trumbull ready to assert their dominance over their opponent. With blue skies overhead and a chill in the air, New Canaan put on an impressive display of teamwork, determination and tenacity by scoring two early goals in the half.
Assisted by Jade Lowe, both Dillyn Patten and Caitlyn Tully scored for New Canaan, while later in the half, Patten and Grace Crowell added two more goals to the tally. In our half of the field, teammates Avery Minter and Angelica Megdanis continued to control the pace of the action and pushed the ball forward to set up the offense. Goalkeeper Ashley Barton kept her poise in the net and made several important saves to keep Trumbull off the scoreboard.
Winning 4-0 at the beginning of the second half, New Canaan did not back down from their relentless style of play, continuing to maneuver the ball into scoring position. An early goal by Hollis Mulry via a beautiful pass by Patten brought New Canaan’s lead to 5-0. Although play-maker Patten had many quality shots on goal, it would be Kiki Brainard and Kaleigh Harden each drilling the ball into the net.
New Canaan keeper Hadley Beiles, whose scrappy goaltending kept the few shots that Trumbull attempted out of the net, assured the second shut out of the weekend.
With a final score of 7-0 New Canaan finally secured their spot in the quarterfinal round of the CT Cup. They will next face Old Greenwich RCC Thunder Blue in Cup action, and after a bye week, will resume their regular season play on Sunday, Oct. 12 against division rival Southbury.
U9 Red team’s Goal keeper Teddy Balkind with defense Ted Werner and Jack Cuda scored another shutout win Sunday, beating Norwalk 4-0. Contributed photo
New Canaan U9 Boys Red Shut out Norwalk, 4-0
With the expert coaching of Chris Gilligan, the New Canaan U-9 Boys Red team scored another shutout win yesterday, beating Norwalk 4-0.
The undefeated New Canaan team jumped out to an early lead when Benjamin Bilden drove the ball up the field to kick a hard, crossing shot that bounced off of the Norwalk goalie. Teddy Hoffstein slammed in the rebound for 1-0 lead.
Unfettered by the strong competition, New Canaan’s offense of Connor Lytle, Felipe Galavis , and Jack Cuda continued to maintain control of the ball with skilled passing and kept Norwalk’s goalie busy with several shots on goal.
In addition, Benjamin Bilden’s fantastic crosses into the box landed him a score from a penalty shot, with an assist by Connor Lytle. The boys’ aggressive teamwork continued, with Ethan Schubert adding to the lead with the third goal of the game. The second half continued with the strong defense of Will Langford, Max Lowe, Jaden Oyekanmi, Ted Werner, Cole Wilson and goalkeeper Teddy Balkind.
Their tough, impressive defense kept their opponent from getting anything in the net. To end the game, Augusto Baldini scored the fourth goal with an assist by Will Langford off of Benjamin Bilden’s well-placed corner kick.
New Canaan U10 Boys Red Team Wins 8-2
This talented group of young boys went into Sunday’s game against Danbury undefeated.
They just can’t put a foot wrong this season and it seems that coach Matt Lannon has over the last 13 months created a highly motivated and skilled team who have been winning most of their games by a margin of at least three goals.
Sunday proved no exception.
They started the game on the attack with early shots on goal and their first success came at the 6 minute mark when Alberto Reyes kicked what is fast becoming his signature goal, into the back right corner of the net. That was soon followed by a goal from Blake Wilson after a long run from him down the field.
With solid defense from Aidan McLaughlin, Danbury found it very hard to get a look in.
As with so many of their previous games when they have taken the lead, Coach Lannon asked the boys to start passing and recycling the ball rather than continue scoring, in order to hone their skills. They showed a great deal of maturity complying with his directions and the temporary disruption in their attacking mode did lead to two goals from Danbury.
However, as soon as Coach Lannon gave orders to resume their attack, New Canaan scored an impressive goal when Tommy Augustine’s scoring attempt hit the crossbar and bounced off, only to be headed into goal by Stone Anderson. A goal by Travis Sturcke and an impressive save by Sam Bisesi in goal just before half time had NC in the lead 5-2 at half time.
After halftime our boys sealed the game with goals from Blake Wilson (following a terrific pass from Alberto Reyes) and Sam Bisesi, and did not concede any more goals due to great goal keeping by Travis Sturcke.
The boys deserved their full time score of 8-2 and we are all looking forward to watching this team continue to develop and improve.