GJVS Stops Nobles, 3-1

The Girls’ JV Soccer team earned a satisfying 3-1 win against a solid Nobles squad on Wednesday.

 

With the support of excellent passing and a stiff tailwind, Nobles dominated play for much of the first half, keeping continual pressure on our defense and forcing goalkeeper Anna Pimentel to make several key saves to keep the game scoreless. Groton only had one good chance the entire half, but we made it count. An Emily Pollis throw-in deep in our attacking end found Lidia Spada behind the defense, and Lidia carried the ball across the penalty area from left to right before calmly putting a shot past the Nobles keeper for a 1-0 lead at halftime.

 

The second half was a different story. With the wind at our backs and a couple of player adjustments up front, Groton looked like a different team. Calen Cagney switched from forward to mid to help improve our possession and positioning, and Elena Junkala took Calen’s spot up top. Boosted by this new alignment, we repeatedly beat Nobles to loose balls and maintained possession in our offensive half of the field for long stretches of time. Groton went up 2-0 when Elena took a throw from Calen and worked it into the middle towards Emily Pollis, who found Lidia Spada open about 12 yards off the left post for her second goal of the game. Nobles cut the lead to one just a few minutes later as a low shot from the right side eluded goalkeeper Lilly Gordon, but Groton picked up an insurance goal shortly afterwards. This last score came on a hustling play by Elena Junkala, who beat her defender to a slow-rolling ball that Lidia Spada had pushed past the keeper and towards the goal mouth.

 

Although that was the end of the scoring, Groton continued to pressure Nobles the rest of the way. Alesandra Powell, Maya Varkey and Alex Canellakis played with terrific energy on the left side, while Riya Varkey, Sabrina Blanton-Rich, Julia Trowbridge, Sarah Beran and Angela Wei all made key contributions as well.

 

Players of the Game were Elena Junkala and Leah Canellakis. Elena’s hustle and tenacity energized and set a great example for our team throughout the second half, while Leah stifled multiple Nobles scoring chances when she caught up with and diverted down several Nobles forwards who had run down dangerous through balls for potential breakaways. Honorable mention to Lidia Spada, who had a hand in all three of our goals today.

 

Thank you to the parents who made the trip to Nobles. The next JV game is Saturday afternoon at home against BB&N.