Venice Can’t Break Kennedy Defense

The Kennedy Cougars surely took notes on how to slow down the Gondoliers after Venice posted four goals in its first round playoff victory. Kennedy put up a wall of four defenders and Venice couldn’t push past them, falling 1-0.

 "It was a tough loss,” coach Ruben Palma said after the game.“I think today we lost a lot in the midfield.  We had some injuries up front and had to move some players around and as a result we lost a lot of possession in the middle."

Kennedy controlled the ball early on, yet it was the Gondos who had the first scoring chance, on a near own goal.

After Alyssa Ortega put a cross through, a Kennedy defender headed it away, sailing the ball inches wide of her own post. For the corner kick, Venice had a good shot on goal, but it floated over the crossbar.

Not long after, Kennedy was able to capitalize on a costly defensive error by Venice. Kennedy had a 3-on-0 break when the Gondo defenders stopped play, expecting an offsides call. However, no flag was raised, and a Kennedy player was able to get past Morgan Disanto and put her team up 1-0.

Venice had a couple of free kicks, yet were unable to threaten the goal much, as Kennedy took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

“Jessica (Lomeli) had a hurt ankle and she couldn’t play much. That really threw our rhythm off. We have a triangle up front with Kaela, Alyssa, and Jessica, so not having Jessica threw that off a lot,” Palma said of his team’s offensive struggles.

The second half was more of the same for the Gondos.  Venice was able to dodge a couple bullets on free kicks that were near-perfect for Kennedy.

On one, the kick landed perfectly at the feet of a Cougar, but her shot sailed just wide. On another free kick, the ball rocketed off the crossbar, yet Kennedy was not able to put back the rebound. 

Venice had one final chance late in the game. Following a goalkeeper error, Venice had a free kick inches outside the box, but the Kennedy wall deflected  the ball away.

Palma had one of his stars Danielle Vasquez playing defense the whole game. Afterwards, he admitted that he should have moved her up.

“I don’t know what happened, honestly. I think I lost track of time. I was planning on moving Danielle up at some point, but I got caught up in everything else and ran out of time," Palma said.

Still, he commended his team.

“I thought we played great all year. Considering this was a transition year for us, I thought the season turned out great. This was the first time we’ve won a playoff game in a while, so that is a great memory," Palma said.

With the girls defeat, winter sports are now over for Venice. But starting Friday, baseball season kicks off, followed by softball and boys volleyball. Stay tuned to patch for coverage of spring sports as they start.