Girls Soccer Gets Shut Out

The rocky season continues for the Montville High girls soccer team, which lost 6-0 to Vernon Township at home on Monday.

The loss brings the team's record to 1-7 for the season.

The Mustangs were outmatched by the unbeaten Vernon team (10-0), which was able to score almost at will in the first half. Montville keeper, sophomore Rosie Hauser, had 14 saves on the day, but the porous Mustang defense was unable to provide her with much support.

Vernon had more than 17 shots on goal for the day. Montville finished with three.

Coach Danielle Vytell said that the team's goal coming in was to develop good behaviors for the second half of the season.

"We knew that we weren't going to be able to defend them," she said. "So our goal was to work on the things we needed to work on: short passes, moving without the ball. There's more work to be done, but I saw a lot of good things out of my young kids, and that's promising for the future."

Montville looked better in the second half on both sides of the ball, taking shots on Vernon's goal and defending the ball more effectively. Vytell attributes the team's relative success between halves to a focus on positioning.

"For the second half, [the team] focused on where you need to stay, where you need to be." she said. "[I told the girls] If you just do your job then you are doing what I asked you to do. In the second half, everyone ID'ed their task and that made the difference."

Montville's next game is on Wednesday, at home against Morris Hills, at 4 p.m.