New Canaan Football Club U11 Girls Red Team has Winning Weekend

The New Canaan Football Club’s U11 Girls Red Team played the Cheshire White team in their first round of the 2015 Connecticut Cup Tournament on Saturday September 19th. This year the U11 Cup Tournament has 67 teams, from around the state, competing in a single elimination competition that will last the next six weeks. Winning keeps you advancing until only two teams are left standing for the championship. This weekend, New Canaan took their first steps toward that goal with a stellar win on their home field.

The game opened up with New Canaan coming out early and getting a breakaway goal from Ellie Gallois who was setup nicely on a pass from Ella Patterson. New Canaan’s offense pressured the Cheshire defense repeatedly and Ava Gizzie added a second goal just minute later when she was hit with a crossing pass from Addie Cannon. The Red Team’s strategy of sharp passing and using the whole field to create opportunities proved effective as Stella Nolan scored the third goal of the game after Patterson once again created the play with her crossing pass. At this point Cheshire’s offense was unable to counter and was shut down by the New Canaan defensive effort. The first half came to close after Gizzie scored her second goal of the game leaving the score at 4-0 at the break.

New Canaan began the second half where they left off from the first with Ava Gizzie getting her second hat trick in two weeks. Gizzie blasted a shot past the Cheshire goalie to send the game to a 5-0 score. Once again the New Canaan defensive effort led by Kate Caione and Nola Kammerer proved to be an impenetrable barrier for Cheshire who found themselves constantly retreating to defend their end. As the half proceeded the Red Team’s offense continued to spread the ball around and dominate its possession. Evelyn Slatoff contributed to the tally when she scored on a pass from Ellie Gallois. Caroline Underwood would also add her name to the goal scorers after Katharine Byrne stole the ball from a Cheshire player and set up Underwood for the score. Ella Patterson closed out the scoring with a goal of her own after having two assists on the day.

As witnessed by the list of goal scorers for the day, Saturday’s game was truly a team effort with contributions from the entire team on both offense and defense. Ball movement and passing to set up goal scoring opportunities was what led New Canaan to their 8-0 shutout victory. The Red Team’s ambition to make it to the finals is very realistic if they continue to play as they have shown they are capable of.

Sunday’s regular season game against the Fairfield United Soccer Association (FUSA) Red Team delivered back and forth excitement on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. The first half proved to be a defensive battle with Sage Hartslief leading the way with her perfect goal keeping. Neither team was able to post any goals in the half, which ended with 0-0 tie.

On the other hand, the second half was all about offense with Ava Gizzie starting the charge on a breakaway goal to set the score at 1-0. This goal was answered with the FUSA team scoring minutes later to tie the game 1-1. Gizzie replied with her second goal of the game on a free kick that found the back of the net and once again New Canaan regained the lead at 2-1.

Fairfield would not lie down and continued to pressure the New Canaan defense and was able to score and tie the game at 2 all. As the second half pressed on, Katie Polacek answered back with a left footed goal to again regain the lead for New Canaan. Addie Cannon created some breathing room by netting the forth New Canaan goal to make the score 4-2.

To add to the excitement Fairfield scored a third time and was threatening to come back when Ava Gizzie added an insurance goal on a pass from Natalie Owsley. As the game clock expired New Canaan was victorious for the second time in two days with a final score of 5-3. It must be noted that Ava Gizzie has scored a hat trick in each of the last three consecutive games for the New Canaan Red Team, an outstanding accomplishment.

PICS

1) Ava Gizzie

2) Stella Nolan