In one of the toughest matches of the season, Richard Montgomery’s girls varsity soccer team gave it their all, but ultimately lost to the BCC Barons 3-0.
The overcast sky on Saturday afternoon reflected the girls’ moods as they trudged off the field, disappointed with the result. The game had been tied until the last ten minutes of the match, in which the Barons scored three goals in quick succession.
Forwards sophomore Delaney Goetz and senior Bryony Hollingsworth were out due to injury, so the Rockets missed their scoring edge against BCC’s disciplined defensive line.
The Rockets had a strong start to the game. They dominated the first five minutes, keeping the ball in BCC’s half of the field and gaining an early corner kick. Although BCC had a few runs down the field, RM’s defenders covered them well.
About 23 minutes into the game, senior captain Sonia Postolache passed a through ball to junior Kate Schuck, who crossed it into the goal box. Although RM didn’t score, they got a corner, from which junior Sue Lee shot the ball unsuccessfully towards the goal.
Goalkeeper Chloe Shankle was vocal, encouraging the Rockets and giving advice. She had to come into action a couple of times with impressive saves, keeping the score tied 0-0.
In the thirty-seventh minute, three minutes until the end of the half, RM got their third corner kick. Junior Katya Morsli stepped up to take it, and hit the ball into the goal box. A series of deflections and attempted shots and clearances had the audience on the edge of their seats, hoping for the ball to end up in the net.
Unfortunately it didn’t, but the Rockets went into halftime confident with their ability to win the game. Neither team had scored yet, and despite every attack the Barons threw at them, RM had stepped up and fought back.
BCC kicked off the second half. It was their turn to gain a corner early on, but RM managed to clear the ball away.
The teams battled hard for the next thirty minutes of the game. BCC dominated possession, and goalkeeper junior Judy Choi had to come up and make some saves to keep RM in the game, but the Rockets had chances to score as well.
Their best chance came in the twenty-ninth minute of the half, when Schuck broke through BCC’s defense with the ball. Their goalkeeper ran up in an attempt to collect the ball, but Schuck pushed it away from her, leaving the net wide open.
However, Schuck’s touch took the ball too far to the right, and all she could do was fire a shot into the side netting of the goal.
Then, a minute later, BCC scored. The Barons crossed a tricky ball to handle into RM’s goal box, and the ball slipped past Choi and into the net.
The Rockets tried to counter, but six minutes later, BCC fired the ball into the back of their net again.
Choi had a great save with two minutes left in the match, but the resulting corner for BCC ended with them shooting the ball into the net for the third time.
With the team disheartened, senior captain Hannah Greco tried to get them to keep their energy up for the last minute of the match, but her encouraging shouts fell on tired ears.
The game ended 3-0 to the Barons, a scoreline that doesn’t reflect how hard the Rockets battled, and how well they matched up to BCC. “The 3-0 doesn’t depict what really happened,” agreed Coach Tarzy.
She saw several positives in the game, mentioning, “We’ve been working on our pressure in the middle of the field, and they did a good job with the defense pushing up and pinching into the center so that the midfield could play well without leaving too much of a gap [between the defense and midfield]. We were winning a lot of balls, too, so that worked out really well today.”
RM faces Churchill away on Wednesday at 7:15 pm, in another crunch match of the season. But Coach Tarzy believes the Rockets should enter that game with confidence, and walk with their heads held high.
“They were mentally scared for this game, and they came out and they shined,” she said. “They played really well; they don’t know how proud I am of that game.”
Featured photo by Ayesha Khawaja
