Girls Soccer: Oakers Take Down Falcons

In sports if you don't capitalize on your scoring chances it will likely come back to haunt you in the end. Cranston West's girls soccer team learned that lesson on Friday afternoon at Coventry High School. They went up against the Oakers and despite several golden opportunities to score, were limited to only one goal, as they lost 3-1.

Coventry sophomore Kayla Dwyer gave her team a 1-0 lead about ten minutes into the game when she buried home the shot from inside the penalty area.

The Falcons began to control possession and take control of the game. With about a minute left in the first half, West freshman Eleni Grammas almost evened the score. She dribbled down the left side and cut inside for a breakaway with the keeper and decided to chip the ball in the air over the goalie. The ball grazed off the cross bar, as West failed to score despite the great move.

In the opening moments of the second half, Coventry maintained ball possession. About three minutes in senior Nicole Francis blasted it from the top of the box on the right side of the field. It found the back of the net, increasing the Oakers lead to 2-0.

During the middle of the second half, the Falcons controlled the action and pace of the game. In each of the halves they had stretches of 10-15 minutes where they had several chances to score and dominated possession. Unfortunately, they did not find the back of the net during these stretches.

"We had great opportunities, especially two in the second half," Falcons coach Charles Pearson said.

"We had numerous defensive breakdowns and they could have had 4 or 5 goals," Oakers coach John Hoxsie said.

With about ten minutes left in the match, junior Elsa Ameida put in a rebound goal, giving Coventry a 3-0 lead.

Two minutes later Cranston West got on the scoreboard. Senior Michala Ferri ripped a shot from the left hand side, trimming the lead to 3-1.

 "We have a great captain in Robin Davenport and we are always on the same page," Hoxsie added.

"We weren’t outplayed, we were outscored," Pearson said.

"I told them to work on two things: to communicate more and get away from the individual play," the Falcons coach said.