The New Canaan Soccer Girls U10 Red Team Gives Darien the Blues

The New Canaan Soccer Girls U10 Red Team opened their regular season play Sunday, on the road against the Darien Blue Team. Just one week after being defeated by Darien in the Fall Annual Soccer Tournament, the two teams met again on the pitch for a heated rematch that resulted in an impressive 7-2 victory for the New Canaan squad.

The first ten minutes of the game was a scoreless back and forth battle for control of the ball. As the Darien offense pressed hard into the New Canaan zone, they were repeatedly rejected by the Red team’s defense. The defensive play of Ava Gizzie and Kate Caione, anchored by the strong goal tending of Nola Kammerer shut down the Darien attempts to score. After great defensive play the offense came alive when Caroline Underwood scored on a crossing pass from Ellie Gallois for the game’s first goal. New Canaan continued the offensive pressure when just minutes later Underwood set up Evelyn Slatoff who blasted a shot past the Darien goalie to send the game to 2-0. Ava Gizzie then took an amazing indirect free kick that went over a defensive wall and found the upper right corner of the net to stretch the New Canaan lead.

With the score 3-0 Darien answered back with a goal of their own, before Ellie Gallois broke free down the field and beat the Blue team’s goalie to add another goal to the New Canaan tally. With two minutes left in the half, Caroline Underwood returned the favor to Gallois by feeding her a pass up the field which resulted in her second breakaway goal of the game. The half came to a close with New Canaan leading 5-1.

The second half began much like the first with great collective defensive play by the New Canaan squad. Ella Patterson was impressive tending the goal and shut down multiple scoring attempts by the Darien offense. Even though Darien battled hard, they were unable to contain the New Canaan offensive charge. Ellie Gallois once again found the back of the net after driving through the Darien defense to get her third goal and the Hat Trick for the day. With the score 6-1, New Canaan was not done and scored their final goal when Ava Gizzie broke away down the field to punctuate the day’s scoring. With just seconds left in the game, Darien scored their second goal and the game ended with a 7-2 New Canaan victory. The Red team’s next game will be on September 14th when they face off against the Westport Blue team.

Photo: Caroline Underwood(left) and Ellie Gallois (right) move the ball up the field on scoring drive.