Gandolfo's Goals, Solid Defense, Lead Lady Colts to Blowout Victory

The Calhoun girls soccer team opened up its league play schedule against Valley Stream Central Wednesday afternoon and came away with a dominating 5-0 win.

Despite a slow start from the host Lady Colts, once the first goal came late in the first half, they never looked back.

"It took us almost 30 minutes to get our style of game going, which is playing to defeat and keeping the ball on the ground," Calhoun coach Lori Biscardi said.

Once Calhoun's game plan got rolling, the offense started to click and create chance after chance. The Lady Colts were able to outshoot Valley Stream 27-6 for the game, nine of those shots on target.

Junior Kristina Gandolfo was the star of the match, putting in two goals, the first to open up the scoring in the 28th minute and another in the opening minutes of the second half.

Gandolfo also set up a goal by freshman Kayla Cappuzzo in the first half. Freshman Nora Charidah and junior Rachel Tyson capped the scoring surge in the closing minutes of the game.

"After our slow start, we got it going and kept it going for the rest of the game," Biscardi said. "That's what these girls do best on this team, passing and running as a team."

Aside from the potent Calhoun scoring attack, the defense pushed the tempo from start to finish and kept Valley Stream's scoring chances at a minimum. Calhoun junior captain Talia Charidah, along with junior Michelle Iacono who contributed with a pair of assists, anchored the tough defensive unit.

"Once we initially took a lead, we started to communicate and work together as an entire team to start putting some more shots in the back of the net," Charidah said.

Charidah credits the strong knowledge of one another on the field, especially between the back defensive four, as the key to success and to create quick scoring chances like they did on Wednesday.

"We have a solid four in the back and we know each other well, allowing us to work well together," Charidah said. "We communicate, know where each other is on the field, so that strong relationship is what helps out our defense."

Valley Stream started off quick and was able to keep Calhoun out of sync in the opening minutes, but the strong effort was unable to put any goals on the scoreboard.

"The loss had a lot to do with inexperience," Valley Stream first-year coach Mike Caputo said. "We have a lot of new girls on the team, so there is still a lot of work to do. Most importantly getting to know each other on the field is definitely key for them to go forward."

The Lady Colts (2-0) are off to the undefeated start to the season that they were looking for. Calhoun now gets a week to prepare for a showdown with Kennedy. That game is next Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and will be played at Brookside School.