Mill River tops Cosmos

You just can't keep a good offense down long.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20131026/SPORTS02/710269903

Published October 26, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Mill River tops Cosmos By JAMIE NORTON Correspondent NORTH CLARENDON – You just can’t keep a good offense down long. No. 8 Springfield tried its best to do so against top-seeded Mill River in Friday’s Division II quarterfinal. But ultimately, the Minutemen proved to have too many weapons with which to contend, as the home team scored three second-half goals en route to a 4-1 win. Mill River got goals from four different players, two of whom also added two assists, showing the selfless and balanced offense that helped make the Minutemen a 14-1 team coming into this one. “That’s the kind of thing that happens when you have more than one dangerous player,” Mill River coach David Carr said. “If you have one scorer, double-teaming is very effective - even putting a player on them that’s only responsible to stop that player. But when you have four, you can’t cover them all.” “They’re an excellent, excellent team,” Springfield coach Christian Craig said. “They’re fun to play against. They’re really well coached, they play well, they share the ball well.” Emma Weatherhogg, Kyle Weatherhogg, Ella Bankert, and Rylee Nichols all found the back of the net, while Bankert and Kyle Weatherhogg had two assists each. But the game was only 1-0 at halftime, and the Cosmos made the Minutemen work hard for their first goal. A headstrong backfield that featured Chelsea McAllister, Meghan Thomas, Katie Stokarski, and Kylie Bellows, among others, proved to be an impenetrable wall for the first 35 minutes of the game. “I thought we did really well in the first half,” Craig said. “Our backs played really well today. The score won’t reflect that at 4-1, but I thought it was a lot closer than that.” Indeed, having met twice already this year, most recently less than two weeks ago, the teams were very familiar with each other, and most of the action before halftime was between the 18s. The Cosmos were able to push the ball into the penalty area and get some decent looks at the goal, but keeper Courtney Ley kept the ball out of the net. “The intensity was high,” Carr said, “as much because, statistically, beating a team three times in a season is really hard because they get to know you. “Springfield’s a great team. We love playing against them, they like playing us. It’s good sportsmanship all the way around. It’s a lot of fun to watch.” The spunky visitors actually held a 5-3 advantage in first-half shots, but the Minutemen made one of theirs count. A corner kick by Bankert resulted in a franctic moment in front of the net during which Kyle Weatherhogg scooted the ball to Emma Weatherhogg, who fired it past Springfield keeper Brooke Willey with just 4:23 left before the break. Not to be outdone, the Mill River defense that included Britteny Wheeler, Karissa Shaw, Ellie Hasenhour, and Brenna Burgess, aong others, kept Cosmos offensive star Sarah Locke and her teammates battling all day. “Sarah’s such a deadly player – our best all-around player,” Craig said, “and at times it looked like they were marking her man-up, at other times they were bracketing her, and she was never really able to get on track. I thought they did a great job against her.” “Any one of (Mill River’s defenders) would take Sarah,” Carr said. “You just have to have good backs, and I think we have six, seven of the best backs in the league. I think we have as good a defense as anybody.” Craig took a calculated risk by moving McAllister, who normally plays offense but started this one on defense to help out against MR’s multi-pronged offense, back to the striker position in the second half. Down by a goal, he wanted to give Locke and the offense a fighting chance. “We took (McAllister) from our offensive formation, pulled (her) back to match up with their speed and strength up top (in the first half),” Craig said. “He later added, but we were still down a goal. You’ve got to score one to get even, and that was our thinking.” “They didn’t have much choice, because it wasn’t going to be a high-scoring game if Chelsea stayed back, and they needed to get at least one,” Carr said. “But that left them with three backs, so now you’re trying to keep a pretty potent team in check with three backs, and that’s a tough, tough assignment.” The Mill River offense made the most of its newfound advantage in the second half. Bankert gave her team a 2-0 edge with 23:34 remaining when she collected a pass from Kyle Weatherhogg and scored. Then, seven minutes later, Bankert returned the favor by setting up Weatherhogg’s goal to make it 3-0. Moving McAllister up front did wind up paying off for the Cosmos on offense, as she scored their only goal of the day from an assist by Thomas with 8:44 remaining. But any hopes for a dramatic comeback were squashed when Nichols netted her tally with only about three minutes to play. “I think, to a point, we literally wore them down a little bit,” said Carr, whose 15-1 team moves on to the Division II semifinals. “We played very aggressive, went to the ball quickly, had tons of nice combinations ... Play like you practice, and that’s the way that we’ve been practicing.” Springfield, which played in the DII state championship game in 2012, finishes this season at 7-8-1. “I thank the seniors – they’ve been a tremendous asset to our program,” Craig said. “After not having a lot of success in soccer in Springfield in a long time, these seniors really led this program back to where I think it’s at a strong point.” The Minutemen will host either No. 5 Harwood or No. 4 Mt. Abraham on Tuesday.