BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
WYALUSING — All season long Wyalusing’s offensive gears seemed to be stuck. On Tuesday, though, they got going in a big way as the Rams rolled past Meadowbrook Christian, 8-0, in the preliminary playoff round of the District IV, Class A girls’ soccer bracket.
Six different Wyalusing players found the back of the net, led by Chloe Bennett’s two goals and four assists. Kenzie Kintner had two goals with an assist, while Vayda Rought had a goal and an assist.
Addi Bly, Emily Fowler, and Carol Scarborough rounded out the scorers.
It feels good since all season we’ve been trying to work on our offense a lot,” Bennett said about their offensive outburst. “It really clicked in the game that really mattered.”
Meadowbrook ran an offsides trap, and they had some success with it early but once Bennett put the first one in at the 21:46 mark of the first half the Rams were off, scoring four goals in each half.
“I think it made us flow into the game, and realize we can do it,” Bennett said about getting her team’s opening goal. “There were passes and there were through balls that really worked well for us. We had girls passing up to the top, and we could get to it, so it worked very well.”
On defense the Wyalusing keeper Sophia Alvarez made 15 saves to get the clean sheet on her final home game of her career. Her 15 saves pushed her pas the school record, too.
“I think we definitely had a lot of confidence,” said Alvarez. “We’ve been working really hard in practice, and things are starting to really come together.”
And, after all the scoreless draws they’ve had this year, Alvarez really liked having some points to protect.
“I couldn’t be happier for my girls up front,” she said. “They really put all that work in, and they do a fantastic job of just nailing them right into the corners.”
For coach Gary Haley he saw a difference in how his forwards went after the goal, and didn’t simply pass side to side in the attacking end.
“The nice thing was the girls were aggressive up top,” said Haley. “Another thing we’ve been talking about, sometimes we’re not aggressive enough, and, Chloe Bennett, her first goal, she made a couple moves, and then she attacked the goal. And it wasn’t just one person being aggressive up front, we had a lot of girls who are getting more aggressive up front, and that was good to see.”
He was also glad to see his team play well for a full 80 minutes.
“I think we played 80 minutes of strong soccer, offensively and defensively,” Haley said.
Before the opening goal at the 28:40 mark Bennett drew a foul just 25-yards out, with Bly taking the free kick. Her shot was just off frame.
Then, seven minutes later Rought found Bennett in the middle of the field. She shook the defender, then found a seam with her left foot to the far corner, beating the keeper for the 1-0 lead.
With 14:20 left in the half the two switched roles, as it was Bennett finding Rought on a through ball past the defense, with Rought beating the keeper for the 2-0 lead.
Just over a minute later Rought got a through ball from Alysha Botts, but the shot was stopped by the keeper.
However, with 11:44 left Kintner took the pass from Bennett, and beat the keeper, hitting the inside part of the right post for the 3-0 lead.
The final goal of the half came with one second on the clock as Bennett found Bly on the other side of the defense, and she beat the keeper to make it 4-0.
In the second half Wyalusing wasted no time to keep scoring as Fowler took a through ball past the defense. The keeper stopped her first shot, but Fowler got to the rebound and punched it in the back of the net to make it 5-0.
Three minutes later Aleta O’Connor drew a foul in the box. Kintner would drive home the penalty kick for the 6-0 lead.
One minute later Kintner found Bennett for her second goal, making it 7-0 with 31:25 left in the match.
The final goal came with 2:46 left as Bennett found Scarborough, who put it past the goalie for the 8-0 final.
The Rams will now face second seed Muncy on Saturday with a noon start at Milton.
“Muncy is a good team, but we’re excited to be going down there,” Haley said. “Hopefully, we play like we’re capable, and we can be competitive coming in.”
Regardless of the outcome, though, this has been a special season for Haley and assistant coach Mario Alvarez.
“The thing I love about our girls is they’re cheering for every girl on the team,” said Haley. “It doesn’t matter who it is, you know, a couple of girls get goals, and one girl, Carol, it might have been her first or second varsity goal, and the girls were just cheering and happy for her. We’ve just got a great group of girls to work with.”
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
