Chatham Women's Soccer Falls to Rival Madison

After a 4-1 loss to Madison High School on Tuesday, Chatham High School women's soccer head coach Tracey Blanchard clearly wasn't happy with what she had just witnessed.

"I don't have anything really good to say, honestly," Blanchard said. "I do want to say that Madison played a heck of a game and they wanted it more."

The Cougars, most of whom are currently battling illnesses, looked strong early in this one, as they jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on a Lina Proska goal at 27:24 of the first half.

Chatham would continue playing well for much of the first half, sans a late goal from Madison's Catherine Zimmerman, looking very competent on offense and strong on defense.

But the Lady Cougars allowed a goal just five minutes into the second half on a set piece from well outside the box. The goal should have been easy to stop, and from there the team began to regress as mental errors took over.

"The whole team is disease-infested right now. We have many people who are sick, but that's an excuse," Blanchard said.

First, Chatham allowed Zimmerman to score her second goal of the game, this one a perfectly place shot to the top right corner of the goal putting Madison ahead 3-1.

The Lady Cougars then saw another mental error lead to Madison's fourth goal of the as senior Sam Cicconi attempted to put a cross into the box. The cross deflected off of a Chatham defender, and shot passed Chatham goalie Olivia Schreiber.

Blanchard was clearly not pleased with Chatham's sloppy performance on Wednesday, and said the team needs to regroup and get better.

"We need to pick it up all around," Blanchard said. "We need to pick up the intensity and I'll say that some of that resides on me too. We just need to pick our game up, pick our practice up and pick our heads up and want it."