Girls Soccer Preview: Thunderbolts Aim for Playoffs

Cranston East's girls soccer team is in the beginning stages of their season. Over the weekend they competed in the Injury Fund tournament. Their team is rather inexperienced and they are trying to improve every day.

Head coach Lauren Tomassi spoke about her attempts to put the best 11 on the field.

"We are just trying to figure out what lineup is going to work best," she said. "Our strength is our midfield and the defense is pretty strong. We need to counter-attack better than we did over the weekend."

In the midfield, they are led by the two outside midfielders, Caroline Lima and Molly Burkhardt. The juniors have started since their freshman year and, according to the coach, have a lot of knowledge about the game.

"They don't make many mistakes and bring a lot to the table," she said.

Senior Kelsy Evje and junior Adrianna Pagano are the starting center midfielders for the Thunderbolts. In the games on Saturday, their midfield controlled the action and played strongly. Their possession and ball control in the middle of the field stood out.

Seniors Jessica Mulveny and Alexis Forte are projected to start at forward and they bring experience to the offensive unit.

Tomasso some of her new players have a lot to offer.

"We have a couple of new girls who are bringing different skill sets to the team," she said.

One of the weaknesses the team has is when they get the ball at their feet, they sometimes freeze and don't know where to go with it.

"We panic a little bit and some of the girls when they get the ball at their feet, they don’t know what to do," the coach said.

"The team is still somewhat young and I am still trying to build the program," she added.

They will open the season against West Warwick and the coach deemed it as a very important game. "They are a huge rival and last year we had a play-in game against them to determine who went to the playoffs," she said.

Narragansett High School are the defending champions and St. Raphael Academy is expected to have a strong team as well.

Tomasso has not selected a starting goalie yet, as two players are battling to gain the starting nod. "Emily Bitton and Olivia Tagliaferri have different techniques," she said. Tagliaferri was the starting goalie for the junior varsity program last year and is able to play the field too.

The team has talent on the offensive side of the ball and should be a contender this year. "I am looking for us to make the playoffs and I think we can make it there," Tomasso said.