Birthday Girls Lead GJVS Over Cushing, 6-0

The Girls’ JV Soccer team celebrated three birthdays with a solid 6-0 win at Cushing on Wednesday, with each of the three birthday girls contributing a goal.

 

It was sunny in Ashburnham but the temperature was in the low 40s, 7-8 degrees cooler than at Groton. As a result, the team got off to a slow start, failing to connect on several good passing opportunities and moving rather slowly. Things changed after the ninth minute, however, when Maya Varkey put us up 1-0 on a nice low shot after receiving a pass from Alesandra Powell. Riya Varkey doubled our lead two minutes later as a pass from Elena Junkala let her slide past Cushing’s sweeper and go in alone on the goalie.

 

Birthday girl Alex Canellakis scored a very nice goal at the 18-minute mark, taking a long ball from Julia Trowbridge, splitting the defense, and launching a shot from the 18-yard line to the upper left corner. Fellow birthday girl Julia then scored one of her own just as the first half ended, off passes up the middle from Sarah Beran and Maya Luthi.

 

Alesandra Powell unexpectedly made it 5-0 early in the second half as she launched a high arcing ball from just over midfield that caught the goalie too far off her line. And our third birthday girl, Leah Canellakis, finished the scoring a minute later from the right side after receiving a pass from Tai Campbell. Groton goalkeeper Lilly Gordon was not tested too severely today, but handled everything that came her way cleanly in earning the shutout.

 

Players of the Game were Alex Canellakis, Leah Canellakis and Julia Trowbridge, who were born five hours apart on this day in 2003 and scored goals within 24 minutes of each other today. Honorable mention to Lauren Clark, Sarah Beran, and Juliya Makhanov. Lauren played most of the game at defense – her first time on the back line this season – and demonstrated poise and good instincts. Sarah and Juliya played more minutes than usual today and were very solid at midfield and defense, respectively.

 

Thank you to Alex, Leah, and Julia’s moms for the drinks and snacks today, and to the other parents who came out and supported us. The girls’ next game is Saturday at Tabor.