Warriors rout Marauders, 4-1, after tying Winchester, 1-1
By DAN MARGARITA
JILLIAN RASO, a senior captain, scored the first goal for the Warrior girls’ soccer team as it went on to stun Middlesex League Liberty division power Belmont by a 4-1 score yesterday afternoon at Walton Field. (Donna Larsson File Photo)
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Memorial High girls’ soccer team hosted Middesex League Liberty division power Belmont yesterday afternoon and sent its guest packing with a stunning 4-1 defeat at Walton Field.
The upset win came after the Warriors played another M.L. Liberty division juggernaut, Winchester, to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday afternoon at Knowlton Stadium.
Wakefield is now 4-6-1 on the season and is 2-1-1 in its past four games.
“(It was) Just an overall amazing team effort. We’re very happy with how we showed up and how we managed to play a full 80 minutes and control the game,” said Wakefield coach Jessica Iosua.
It didn’t take long for Wakefield to get on the scoreboard when Kelsey Czarnota fed a nice pass to Jillian Raso who buried it to give Wakefield a 1-0 lead.
The teams played somewhat evenly for a while and then Kristin Gay scooped up a loose ball and was able to split two Warrior defenders and score to tie the game at 1-1.
The Marauders had some other scoring chances that it could not capitalize on because of good defense and fine goal keeping by Kristina Redmond whose jumping deflection of a shot kept Belmont from taking a lead.
“Kristina Redmond is amazing at keeper. She stops shots that most high school keepers would never stop and Kayla Geaney is just absolutely phenomenal in the middle for us. She’s doing everything this year that I’ve asked her to do; much more on defense and entirely answered that call,” noted Iosua.
Wakefield took the lead for good late in the half on a goal from Meghan Chapman, assisted by Geaney.
Wakefield stepped up the pressure even more in the second half. It paid off when Abby Chapman got a ball away from the downed Belmont keeper Linda Herlihy and scored to put Wakefield up 3-1.
“What we’ve been struggling with all year really are two things. First, acting as a unit, playing as a unit and transitioning as a unit and today we did that phenomenally well. I think we were better transitioning offensively and beating their defense both down the wings and also through the middle. I do think we held our own on defensive transitions as well, which we’ve struggled with this season, Secondly, we’ve struggled with scoring and we’ve been working a lot on that in practice and focusing on being goal-oriented (and) goal-minded (and) hungry. Today we had four different scorers and four phenomenal team goals,” said Iosua.
Wakefield got another insurance goal from Geaney, who poked the ball in with the side of her foot.
“We feel very strongly that our best soccer is ahead of us. We struggled at the beginning of the season, quite clearly, and even though we lost games in the middle as well, we do feel strongly that it is all coming together. Leadership is emerging and the girls are much better able to manage mistakes when they make them. They understand at this point it’s one moment in the game and they have the rest of the game to make it up. so we’ve really changed our mental game,” said Iosua.
Against Winchester on Tuesday, it may been a case of a Warrior team coming together combined with a Winchester team that was slumping after an upset loss to Burlington.
Winchester took the lead on a goal by Alix Curton off a pass from Sylvia Goodwin.
However Wakefield was undeterred and tallied the equalizer with 8:40 left in the contest to earn the point.
Wakefield plays Watertown on Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Victory Field.
(Sports Editor Jim Southmayd contributed to this report).
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At Walton Field
Belmont………….1 0 — 1
WAKEFIELD…….2 2 — 4
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First Half — Wak, Raso (Czarnota) 4:00. Bel, Gay (un.) 12:00. Wak, M.Chapman (Geaney) 32:00.
Second Half — A.Chapman (un.) 13:00. Wak, Geaney (Czarnota) 28:00.
Saves — Wak,Redmond (11), Hickey (1). Bel, Herlihy (6).
