BEACON FALLS — After finishing the end of the regular season strong, the Woodland girls soccer team fell short of accomplishing the ultimate goal of capturing a state title.
No. 3 Woodland fell 1-0 to No. 15 Weston, which has gotten the best of the Hawks the last three times they’ve played, in the second round of the Class M tournament Nov. 6 in Beacon Falls.
“We still had a great season and I’m very proud with each and every girl on the team who gave their all for the entire season,” head coach Cait Witham said.
The lone goal of the game came from Weston’s Alexandra Alwang as the rainy conditions and solid play from their opposition prevented the Hawks from putting points on the board and advancing.
“The rain and field didn’t help us, but we had so many chances in that game to score that we just didn’t finish on. We had two-shots go off the post and a shot from six yards away that was off target,” Witham said.
Woodland (16-5) was without their scrappy aggressor on offense, Jessica Rodrigues, who missed the game against Weston (11-3-4) due to a concussion she had obtained earlier in the week.
Witham didn’t use Rodrigues’ absence from the lineup as an excuse.
Once the final buzzer sounded and the Hawks’ season was officially Witham let her players know how proud they made her this season.
“I just told them to not get too down on themselves because they had given 110 percent all season and I was proud of them. They need to learn from this loss because we could face Weston against next year,” Witham said. “I told them to learn from the seniors this year who gave a lot to this program because they’ll be in their shoes soon enough.”
Woodland defeated No. 30 ranked Foran (5-9-3) 2-1 in the opening round of the tournament Nov. 4 as Rodrigues made her impact in the tournament early on.
Rodrigues corralled a punt beyond midfield from goalie Jenna Pannone 10 minutes into the second half and sprinted behind the defense before putting the ball in the back of the net, scoring what would be the game-winning goal.
Savannah Aviz provided the first goal of the game off an assist from Marisa Macek, while Pannone racked up seven saves overall in the first-round victory.
Just because the season ended earlier than the Hawks would have liked, Witham is confident in her team to be back strong next year.
“Whatever I told the girls to do all season, they did. They respond incredibly well to direction and it’s encouraging that they were so eager to learn because we’re going to need that next year,” Witham said.
