Ally Carr wrestles past a Hall player to score the first goal of the game during a 2-0 win last Friday.
By BRIAN JENNINGS
STAFF WRITER
The Lady Knight soccer team hasn’t lost a game since Sept. 28. Along the way, they’ve secured 8-0 victories against teams like Bloomfield and Platt and 7-0 shutouts against teams like East Hartford and Hartford Public.
But according to Southington coach Mike Linehan, that’s not his team’s fault because of the way the league is set up.
With a 2-0 win against Hall and 0-0 tie with Conard this past week, Southington extended its winning streak to seven games. Linehan said that he is hopeful people will start believing in them, now that they are playing some of the league’s better teams.
“We’ve believed in ourselves,” the coach said. “I hope that everyone starts to get behind this group because they certainly have worked hard and deserve the accolades of being called a good team now.”
The Knights will wrap up the regular season this week against NW Catholic (3-12). Southington is 10-3-2 and still tied with Conard (10-3-2) for first place in the CCC West Colonial Division.
Tie at Conard
OCT. 25—The Knights settled for their second tie of the season on Wednesday after drawing, 0-0, with divisional Conard on the road. The Knights fell, 1-0, to the Chieftains earlier in the season after a penalty kick was overturned.
“This was a typical Conard-Southington game,” said Linehan. “It was like two heavyweight champions going at each other. We didn’t finish, but it was one of our better games. I think it proved to us that we belong right where we belong, and the confidence that we’ll have as a result of that is terrific.”
Olivia Sherwood saved four of Conard’s six shots in the net. Conard’s Mackenzie Brink saved seven of Southington’s 16 shots on goal.
Win vs. Hall
OCT. 27—The Knights earned their seventh-straight win and ninth shutout of the season on Friday by blanking divisional Hall, 2-0, at home.
Following a scoreless first half, Alexa Imme played a free kick into the right side of the penalty box to Ally Carr from about 25 yards out in the 65th minute. Carr gathered the ball and boxed out a defender, managing to slide a shot by a diving goalie into the corner of the net for the game’s first goal from just outside the goalie box.
“It really came out of a lot of hustle and effort,” said Linehan. “You have to let things develop and happen. That’s a little bit more of what we did in the second half.”
In the 75th minute, a Taylor Hubert corner kick was headed by Emma Panarella and shot by Natalie Verderame into a diving goalie’s mitts. When the goalie came down with the potential save, the ball ricocheted off the ground and bounced out of her hands to Kelly Doyle’s foot for the second goal of the game.
“She outworks defenders,” the coach said. “She’s not going to have that pretty goal that’s going to be on ESPN on the highlight reel, but she gets that garbage goal because of her effort and energy that she brings to the game. She made something clearly out of nothing.”
Sherwood saved two of Hall’s three shots in the net. Southington took 12 shots on goal.
For this week’s box scores, click here: (southingtonobserver.com/2017/11/01/weekly-scoreboard-for-the-nov-3-edition). To contact sports writer Brian Jennings, email him at BJennings@SouthingtonObserver.com.