New Canaan Soccer U10 Girls Red Team Win 3 of 4 Labor Day Weekend

The New Canaan Soccer U10 Girls Red Team kicked off their Labor Day weekend and fall season by winning 3 of 4 games on Saturday, at the Fall Annual Soccer Tournament (FAST) in Fairfield. The day of soccer began with New Canaan facing the Fairfield Red Thunder team. New Canaan jumped out to an early start when Nola Kammerer opened the season with a quick goal just two minutes into the game. The New Canaan offense controlled the ball for most of the first half leaving little opportunity for Fairfield to mount an offensive attack. Ella Patterson added to the lead just minutes before the half time whistle to send the game to a 2-0 score. As the second half opened, once again the New Canaan team dominated the field position and the defense proved nearly impenetrable. Midway through the half Katharine Byrne bent a shot into the top of the net to add an insurance goal to the New Canaan lead making the score 3-0. The game would end in a 3-1 victory behind the combined goal tending efforts of Caroline Underwood and Ella Patterson.

The second game of the day was played against the Fairfield United Red 1 Team. Once again the New Canaan offense controlled the field position and had multiple shots at the Fairfield goalie, who proved to be a formidable opponent. However, the Fairfield defense was unable to stop Evelyn Slatoff from finding the back of the net after receiving a beautiful crossing pass from Natalie Owsley. The 1-0 score would hold through the first half thanks to the tough New Canaan defensive play of Kate Caione, Caroline Underwood, Grace McManus and Katie Polacek. The second half offense was highlighted by a breakaway goal by Ellie Gallois and a Katharine Byrne direct free kick goal after the Fairfield goalie handled the ball outside of the box. The goal tending play of Ellie Gallois and Ava Gizzie held Fairfield to just one goal for the game which ended in a 3-1 New Canaan victory.

New Canaan faced the Darien Blue Team for their third game of the tournament. Ella Patterson took the first drive of the game down the field for a goal, scoring in the first minute of play. With New Canaan up 1-0, Darien answered back with a goal of their own to send the game to a 1-1 tie. The game play was evenly matched throughout the first half and ended with no further scoring. The second half opened with Darien scoring twice in the first five minutes. With the score 3-1 in favor of Darien, Katharine Byrne closed the gap to 3-2 when she blasted a shot past the Darien goalie on a penalty kick. However, New Canaan was unable to score again and the game ended in a 5-2 loss.

Bouncing back after the third game, New Canaan came out fired up to battle the Brookfield Lonergan team. As the offensive unit dominated the ball and the defense proved immovable, Ellie Gallois began the scoring with a breakaway goal down the left side of the field. Addie Cannon added to the scoring when she recovered a rebound off the Brookfield goalie and buried the shot to send the score to 2-0. The third goal of the game came when Julia Dunn perfectly set up Ellie Gallois with a pass that allowed her to explode for another breakaway goal. As the second half rolled on, Brookfield could not stop the New Canaan offense which added two more goals by Katharine Byrne and Nola Kammerer. The game ended in 5-0 shutout victory thanks to the combined goal tending of Saige Hartslief and Natalie Owsley. Winning the fourth game of the day, New Canaan finished with 3-1 tournament record. The team looks forward to regular season play which begins Sunday, September 7th in a rematch with the Darien Blue team.