SOUTHBURY — The Naugatuck girls soccer team battled with Pomperaug for 70 minutes in the Class L state tournament opener Tuesday. Looking to spring the upset, the Greyhounds trialed 1-0 with 10 minutes to go before the Panthers exploded for four goals to send Naugy home with a 5-0 loss.
The No. 18 Greyhounds (9-8) had faced the No. 15 Pomperaug (9-6-2) during the regular season and came up on the short end of a 5-1 final. But Tuesday’s rematch was not indicative of the final score.
“I was very pleased with our effort,” Naugatuck head coach Sean Dunn said. “We were battling with them after Pomperaug scored off a direct kick. We came out in the second half and had a couple of opportunities early but we couldn’t finish.”
The Panthers got on the board with 19 minutes to go in the first half when Scarlet Broderick booted a direct kick into the right corner of the box and Arlie Koziol cleaned it up for the 1-0 lead.
The Naugatuck defense, including Sandra Dinis, Jasmine Grey, Leigha Molligi and Erin Doris, got the job done out in front of goalkeeper Sophie Boucher for much of the rest of the game until Pomperaug opened the flood gates.
“Our defense was getting the job done and with 10 minutes to play Pomperaug scored again,” Dunn said. “After that it quickly came apart as every bounce went their way.”
The Greyhounds came out in the second half and had a couple of opportunities early on but couldn’t find the back of the net. Pomperaug, which had a 22-7 shot advantage, had just as much trouble getting one to go.
With 10 minutes left Jamie Collimore got past a defender and sent a 15-yard blast into the net. Five minutes later Collimore added an insurance goal to open up a 3-0 lead. The Panthers tacked on two more scores from Kelly Almedia and Lindsay Scott in the final minutes for the 5-0 final margin.
“I know we were a little inexperienced coming into the season but by mid October we were playing with a lot more consistency,” Dunn said. “The offense dried up in the postseason and that may have been because of the pressure of the tournament. We have a lot of younger girls coming back next season. We gelled as a team but we were never able to get that solid 80 minutes where everyone was clicking and on the same page.”
The Greyhounds found a consistency on offense during the season turning around a 0-3 start to finish strong with three straight wins.
Junior Sara Marques led the team with 13 goals and had two hat tricks (three goals) on the season. Junior Hannah Lauer added six goals and senior Taylor Campos had five goals. Senior Suzana Amaral, sophomore Kyla Magalhaes and freshman Hailey Boulanger all had four goals each. Freshman Makayla Texiera had three goals and Alyana Sosa two goals added to the Greyhounds scoring output.
Naugatuck will return Grey, Andrea Mercer and Tricia Nolan to the defense that will also bring back Boucher and sophomore Cassidy Baranowski in goal. It will come down to putting a spark in the offense for Naugatuck to make another run in the NVL and state tournaments next season.
