Groton Ties (and almost upsets) Undefeated St. Mark's, 2-2

The Girls’ JV Soccer team played their most exciting game of the season on Saturday, an exhilarating and fast-paced end-to-end battle against St. Mark’s that ended in a 2-2 tie and left both teams happy with the result.

 

St. Mark’s came into the game undefeated, having given up only five goals all year and never more than one in a game.  Despite that, Groton came in extremely confident, having won four in a row and possessing a 10-5 record overall on the season, believing that we could not only hang in against St. Mark’s but defeat them if we played up to our full capacity.

 

Groton was strong off the opening whistle, and after some brief early pressure from St. Mark’s we started to dominate, holding the ball in our offensive end for long stretches of time and making their defenders and goalie work very hard in the early going.  This effort paid off at the 14-minute mark, as a corner kick from Annie Fey found its way to Zoe Colloredo-Mansfeld just outside the 18, and Zoe blasted it through everyone to put Groton up 1-0.  We almost doubled the score a few minutes later when Annie’s free kick from just outside the right side of the penalty area sailed over the goalie’s hands, but a St. Mark’s defender standing on the goal line was able to leap up and head it away, keeping our lead at one going into halftime.

 

As in so many of our games this year, we knew that the first goal of the second half was going to be critical.  Unfortunately, it was our opponents who scored it this time, as a nice pass allowed a St. Mark’s girl to dribble in towards the left post just one minute into the half and tie the game at 1.  The tie didn’t last long, though, as Annie Fey was fouled in the penalty area and Josephine Alling’s penalty kick put us back on top, 2-1.  This was the first time all year St. Mark's had allowed more than one goal in a game.  But they were undefeated for a reason, and they showed their resilience by driving right back; a nice cross from the right side led to a tap-in at the left post, knotting the score at 2-2 with 25 minutes to go.

 

The remainder of the game was a battle.  Where Groton had dominated the first half, St. Mark’s controlled much of the second, forcing our defense of Karla Sanford, Isabel Brown, Emma Beard and Harriet Winterer to scramble and hustle repeatedly in support of goalkeeper Alesandra Powell.  Forwards Elena Junkala and Maya Varkey had a few opportunities up top, but the ball was in our defensive end for much of the time. 

 

With less than a minute left, a St. Mark’s girl slipped through the defense and drove in alone for the potential game-winning goal.  Alesandra Powell came out to challenge her, but the girl got off a beautiful shot, a line drive headed for just under the crossbar.  Alesandra leapt up and just got her fingertips on the ball, deflecting it just enough that the shot sailed an inch over the crossbar instead of just under.  Groton cleared the ensuing corner kick, and the final whistle blew moments later.  St. Mark’s was happy to have escaped the game with their undefeated season intact, and Groton was happy to have maintained the tie and to have come so close (Annie’s shot that was headed off the goal line) to beating our arch-rivals.

 

Player of the Game was Alesandra Powell.  She made several key plays during the game, but none was more dramatic than her tie-preserving tip with 30 seconds remaining, a play that had our entire bench charging onto the field to hug and congratulate her when the game ended moments later.  Runner-up was Annie Fey, whose energetic and inspired play-making featured in both of our goals and created numerous other chances.

 

This game leaves the team with a final record of 10-5-1.  The girls came a long way from the start of the season, improving not only individually but – more importantly – as a team.  Over the course of the past two months, every girl on the team gained confidence in her own abilities and also in the strength, quality, and capabilities of our team.  For the year, we scored 41 goals and allowed only 13, and all ten of our victories were shutouts.  Elena Junkala was our leading scorer with 7 goals, with Maya Varkey right behind her with 6. 

 

Thank you to the parents who watched us today, and especially Mrs. Reiss for the halftime Gatorade and post-game snacks.  Thank you also to all the others who supported us over the course of the year.  We look forward to another exciting season next fall.