U12 Girls Black Soccer team kicks off season with a big win against Easton Redding

Easton Redding came to New Canaan to challenge the U12 Girls Black team and ran into a barrage of goals and a rock solid wall on defense. The game started with Easton Redding attempting to sprint past Campbell McGurk on defense only to be shut down. McGurk and teammate Logan Severance would continue to shut down Easton Redding all day.

6 minutes into the game Lily Bradley centered a pass to Sloane Griffiths who bounced one off the far post for a 1-0 lead. Only 5 mintues later Anne Gilliam beat 2 defenders on the right side and passed to the right foot of Bradley who rifled a shot to the near post giving the goalie no chance.

Easton Redding countered with several strong attempts but was shut down by brilliant play from goalie Danielle O’Malley. Kira Morton played hard in the midfield keeping the ball up in the offensive zone opening up opportunities for the offense. Kaisa Miligan took advantage of the strong play of Morton and found a wide open Grayson Strine who barely missed on the attempt. Strine found the ball later with one minute to play and streaked past the defense and threaded a pass to Griffiths who made it 3 nil with her second goal of the day.

The second half was almost as good as the first with Lindsay Zaffino controlling a loose ball on the right side and hitting Ella McDonnell who put it home decisively for a 4-0 lead. Zaffino was not done when the unselfish pass by Strine allowed Zaffino to hit the left corner of the net.

As the girls were tiring, it was the fresh legs of Mia Fanning and Sarah Marshall who dominated the play in the middle of the field. The two of them continued to run down Easton Redding offenders and won many loose balls. Goalie Kaisa Milligan was up to the task with some great saves and in one case stopping a sure goal when she leaped up to snag a high shot. To cap off the win Griffiths scored her third goal with 7 minutes left to play. A great start to the season for the U12 Black team.