Clarkstown South Girls Varsity Soccer Dominates Carmel in 6-0 Victory

The Clarkstown South Girls Varsity soccer dominated Carmel High School in an impressive 6-0 victory Monday afternoon.

Right out of the gate, the Vikings controlled the game with an aggressive offense and disciplined defense.  Carmel played hard, however, the stronger, faster and more skilled players on the Vikings kept the defense scrambling to just keep the ball away from their goal. 

Carmel maintained better control in the second half and thus were able to go on the offensive more, but South still shut them down and executed well on offense.  As a result, South maintained possession of the ball through the majority of the game and made use of it by scoring six unanswered goals.

The Vikings continuously out-hustled and out-played Carmel throughout the first half.  South passed well, positioned themselves to win the majority of 50/50 balls, and played solid defense.  It was all that Carmel could do to clear the ball in attempts to stop the Viking onslaught.  Unfortunately for them, South's excellent execution as a team kept the ball in Carmel territory for the majority of the time.  This kept Carmel scrambling on defense and incapable of flowing together as a team.  Ultimately, this gave South numerous scoring opportunities, and though Carmel's goalie, Alissa Santulo made many excellent saves, she was unable to stop them all.

Leading the offensive charge for the Vikings was #11 Briana Jean-Charles with the hat trick.  Only minutes after the start of the game, Jean-Charles scored the first of her three goals.  She drove the ball in and maneuvered to the open spot to score with a quick strike from the diagonal. 

Shortly after, it was #14 Allison Kopunek who buried it in the back of the net with the diagonal strike to put the Vikings up 2-0.  Just three minutes later, it was Kopunek again with a powerful, high shot at the goal.  Santulo mistimed her jump and tipped it up for the cutting #8 Carly Glaser, who headed it into the open net from behind the goalie to put her team up 3-0. 

Carmel's team-play started flowing better after this, and they got more aggressive, however, they were still unable to break through the impressive defense of the Vikings.  This closed the half with Carmel trailing by three.

Though Carmel came out stronger in the second half by hustling more and working together better as a team, the result was much the same as the first.  The Vikings were faster, stronger, and positioned themselves better throughout the field.  Then it was Jean-Charles again, who scored her second goal of the game off a well-placed header with just six minutes gone in the half.

After a great possession by Carmel, which was stopped by an excellent save from goalie Jill Murawski, the Vikings would score yet again.  This time, it was #9 Alana Kurtti who immediately took off down the field to chase down the ball and outrun her defenders to get the open look.  She took a powerful shot, which the goalie deflected, however it had enough power on it to roll around her and in, putting the Vikings up 5-0.

Despite their commanding lead, the Vikings were not done yet.  They went on the offensive and got into position with the corner kick.  The kick was well-positioned and, despite Carmel's smothering defensive presence, Jean-Charles was able to knock it in yet again to get the hat trick and put her team up 6-0.  To Carmel's credit, they never gave up as they continued to hustle down the field in an attempt to score.  Unfortunately for them, they were unable to do so and the game concluded with Carmel still not having scored a goal.

Vikings freshman Jean-Charles was excited by the chance to score a hat trick.

 "It definitely gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I scored three goals when I started," said Jean-Charles.  "This is the first time that I started, and hopefully it will get me to start again."

Supporting their team with excellent efforts of their own were Glaser, another freshman, and Kopunek, a senior, who had one goal and one assist a piece.  Rounding out the offensive effort was the sophomore Kurtti, with one goal, the freshman Laura Rolston, with one assist, and the senior Kaitlyn Hutter with an assist as well.

An excellent, all-around defensive effort was backed up by the goalie Murawski.  She had a somewhat easy time of it, thanks to the excellent performance of her teammates, with only five saves.  The opposing goalie, Santullo, played an excellent game with 22 saves for her team.

The Vikings performance was orchestrated by first-year vasity head coach Tom Rolston.  The team now 2-2. 

"We definitely worked harder than we did the last game," said Rolston.  "I changed up the offense and started new players to try and light a fire under them." 

His decision to start some new players, including a number of freshman, definitely paid off.  "We moved the ball very well and were able to get six goals," said Rolston.

The Vikings will continue where they left off in a postponed game, which they led 2-0, today at home against Mamaroneck at 4:30 p.m.