When your team is sitting at or near the top of the Heal point standings, that’s usually a good sign that you playing at or near your potential.
For the third-ranked Scarborough girls’ soccer team, though, everything didn’t come together completely until Saturday against Cheverus.
The Red Storm beat the Stags, 3-0, in what coach Mike Farley called “the best soccer we’ve played so far.” It was the type of performance that leaves coaches with little to say in their postgame breakdowns.
“We’ve had stretches in games where we’ve played really well, but never a full match like that,” said Farley. “Really, every 50-50 ball, we were winning. We were pressuring the ball in the box, getting to those balls. I mean, we were beating them down the field and that was the big key. And that’s something we haven’t done for 80 minutes. That was impressive to see that ’cause we’re a good team and as long as we’re willing to do (that stuff) we’ll be in every game.”
Scarborough put the pressure on Cheverus early – Liz Houle missed just wide with a header two minutes in, and Bri Jordan was set up in close at the seven-minute mark – but the Red Storm didn’t get on the board until the game’s 39th minute.
Houle got the play started when she passed the ball to Caitlin LeBorgne down low on the left side from the center of the field. LeBorgne settled the ball, waited for Cheverus goalie Meaghan Mingo to commit, then sent a cross to sophomore Amanda Daudelin, who touched the pass into the open net.
“We’ve been practicing passing a lot and getting the ball out wide because we know how big of a part of the game it is,” said Jordan, a senior. “And we practice it a lot, just moving the ball quickly because a lot of teams have weaknesses on the outside and that’s one of our strengths. So, we get the ball out wide and that’s how we got most of our goals.”
Most, but not all. Scarborough’s second goal of the game came when Houle fearlessly chased a long pass from Kate Pemberton. Mingo also made up her mind that she was going to try to smother the ball outside of her goal box. Both players arrived at the same time and both players went down hard at the same time, but Houle managed to get enough of the ball to knock it over Mingo and into the goal.
“I didn’t really get a chance to see it because I was just sliding on the ground the whole time, but I heard it was pretty nice,” said Houle, who went down with a twisted ankle but returned later on.
The Red Storm had the cushion it needed, but there was no letting up.
“We had a game plan. We just didn’t execute it the right way,” said Cheverus coach Bryn Carlson. “Every time an offensive player got the ball there were five defensive players crashing in. And we couldn’t get quick enough touches on the ball. And that’s what we needed. We needed to lay it off and get a shot. We didn’t challenge the keeper enough.”
And when the Stags did manage to mount some pressure they fell victim to bad luck. Kristen Hess’s free kick in the 75th minute would’ve pulled Cheverus to within a goal had it not ricocheted off the crossbar. Maybe if the bad break had been a good break it would’ve made a difference, but maybe not as Scarborough scored its third goal a minute later.
This time, Jordan made a run down the left sidelines, drew Mingo to the near post and fed sophomore Alex Laniewski at the far post for her first goal of the season.
“At halftime we talked about that, having our outside midfielders just beat players on the dribble and just drive to the post and serve those balls across and poke them in,” said Farley. “That’s how we got two or three of those goals so it was good to see. I mean, our outside midfielders are the strength of our team so if we can get them to beat players on the dribble and have our forwards commit to running forward we’re going to be very dangerous.”
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