SPORTS

West falls short in comeback bid

By ALEX SPONSELLER
Posted 11/1/22

The Pilgrim girls soccer team held off visiting Cranston West 2-1 in the teams’ regular season finale last week.

Pilgrim would take a quick 2-0 lead in the first half on goals from Gillian …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
SPORTS

West falls short in comeback bid

Posted

The Pilgrim girls soccer team held off visiting Cranston West 2-1 in the teams’ regular season finale last week.

Pilgrim would take a quick 2-0 lead in the first half on goals from Gillian Brown and Amaya Coffie and would control the pace until late in the second half. West would cut into the lead when Sarah Pimental scored to make it 2-1. Although the Falcons would pressure the Pilgrim zone for the final 10 minutes, the Pilgrim defense would come up with key stops to close out the win and finish in first place in their division.

“(The early goals were) huge. (West’s) back four is very organized, their keeper is phenomenal, getting those two goals took a lot of the pressure off of us. It allowed us to play a little more relaxed,” said Pilgrim coach Tom Flanders, who was happy with his team’s mental toughness down the stretch when West caught fire. “They gave us a strong challenge throughout the game and then that goal added some pressure. Can we solidify the win, can we lock it down? We made a couple of changes in the back four, moved some people down and were able to solidify that win. It was a playoff atmosphere and it was good for us to play our style to win the game.”

West was locked into a preliminary matchup against South Kingstown regardless of the outcome, so the Falcons turned to their youngsters to compete against Pilgrim. West coach Jeremy Sherer was thrilled with his lineup’s outing against one of the state’s elite clubs.

“We came in resting our seniors so we had eight underclassmen on the field which was amazing and bodes well for the future. I thought we had a good game plan coming in. We’re used to playing on turf where you possess more, on a grass field you just can’t get that possession. I’m very pleased with how they played given we had eight (underclassmen),” said Sherer.

Brown and Coffie also added assists in the win while keeper Haylee Marcotte recorded nine saves.

Pilgrim will take the top seed into the playoffs and will await the results of the preliminary round for its quarterfinal matchup. Although Pilgrim will be the higher seed in the quarters, Flanders has urged caution to his girls.

“(Being the top seed) doesn’t matter because no matter what, you’ll be playing someone that is feeling good about themselves. They have a playoff win in the preliminary game that you don’t have as the (No. 1 seed). You have to make sure that you are feeling good and that you take them seriously, because they’re going to be feeling confident,” said Flanders.

West faced South Kingstown in the prelims on Tuesday, but the results were not available at press time. Sherer has been thrilled with his team’s performance in a rebuilding season.

“We had so much turnover from last year, losing 10 seniors, seven starters, we knew that this was going to a be a building year. It was a little bumpy, but they did good, it was fun,” said Sherer. “I feel that we match up well with SK, we beat them 1-0 this year, so we’ll see what happens.”

West, soccer

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here