GJVS Ties St. George's, 0-0

The Girls’ JV Soccer team tied St. George’s 0-0 on a sunny Saturday afternoon by the Rhode Island shore.

 

The St. George’s JV field has two distinguishing features – a pronounced slope downward and to the left, and a beautiful view of the nearby beach. Groton adapted well to the first and ignored the distraction of the second in battling the Dragons in a very even match-up.

 

In each half, the team going downhill held the advantage in possession. That was Groton in the first half and St. George’s in the second. In the opening 35 minutes, Groton mounted numerous scoring chances but was unable to finish them. Our defense held St. George’s at bay, allowing only a couple of balls to reach goalkeeper Anna Pimentel during the half.

 

In the second half, St. George’s had more success in pressuring the Groton defense, putting a handful of shots on net and sending several others over the crossbar or wide. But Groton managed to generate some offense in the uphill direction, with Maya Varkey getting loose a couple of times on the right for some strong shots. Ultimately, neither team was able to find the net and the game ended with no score. This was Anna Pimentel’s second shutout in two days, after she also guarded the net in Friday’s thirds team game.

 

Player of the Game was Leah Canellakis. Playing the right side on our defensive line, Leah was in the farthest downhill point on the field in the second half, and the slope meant that most of St. George’s offense ran in her direction. Leah turned her opponents away numerous times and shifted effectively with center defender Emma Beard at others.

 

Honorable mentions go to several other players. Alex Canellakis had her best game of the season at right forward, battling her opponent aggressively and helping to develop several scoring threats. Sabrina Blanton-Rich moved up from defense to midfield and did a great job winning the 50-50 balls in her area. Lidia Spada moved from center mid to center defense and, working with Isabel Brown, helped repel several St. George’s threats from the right side. And Julia Trowbridge played a smart and aggressive game at midfield, distributing the ball well to help our offense advance.

 

Thank you to the parents who traveled to the game, and especially to the Beard family for providing Gatorade at halftime and cookies afterwards. The team will be at Pomfret on Wednesday for our next game.