Health & Fitness
CRHS SOCCER : Girls Fall. Could Leave a Mark.
Lady Devils can not afford another misstep.
The CRHS Girls soccer team woke up Tuesday with a 9-2 record. They were on top of the shoreline conference, the second best team in Class S and the #11 team in the state overall. All good, and well deserved. The problem was they were traveling to the always dangerous confines of Richard Blythe Field at Valley Regional High School.
The game was fairly well played by both sides, but fighting the blinding sunlight, the parents in the stands couldn't shake the feeling that the girls weren't going for the jugular and putting Valley away when they had the chances. They had several 1st half shots, but too many off target. Even when Valley scored first, it didn't seem like it would be too much to over come...if the girls would just give that extra half step of intensity we've seen all season.
The start of the second half saw much of the same, and 20 minutes into the period, Valley sent a seeing eye slow roller to the far post, and it found the netting for a 2-nil lead. In good way there were still 25 minutes to play and the girls were finally playing with intensity. They started to play with the power and domination that would have led to an easy victory if they had displayed 80 minutes worth instead of just 25. Kasi Whitaker, Victoria Buonanni, Morgan Kuehnle and Alison Luther all stepped it up to apply pressure on Valley. The defense also stepped up with Sophomore Back Shaun Whitaker earning player of the game honors. According to Coach Kavanaugh, "Shaun was a major contributor to building an attack from her outside back position. Her composure on the ball and willingness to move without the ball were evident and really shined."
Jess Drop gave the girls hope and even more momentum when she pulled the Lady devils within 1 with her 4th goal of the season.
There were less than 6 minutes to play, and CRHS fought hard. The clock ran out, and the game ended in a 2-1 loss.
Although this is only the 3rd loss of the season, it could prove to be a costly one considering how top heavy the Shoreline bracket is. There are 4 games left in the regular season (Cromwell (2X), Old Saybrook and a rematch with Valley.) The combined record of these teams is currently 32-15-2. There are 12 teams in the Shoreline, but only the bottom 4 have losing records. The top 8 teams have a combined 27 losses while the bottom 4 account for a staggering 39 losses against just 9 total wins.
With numbers like that another "slip" could amount to a drop for the mighty Lady Devils.
The CRHS boys lost on the road to Valley on Monday.
