Cosmos fall to Woodstock

The Springfield girls soccer team played plenty of defense on Thursday and played it well much of the game. However, the Cosmos would get stung by Woodstock’s Kaija twins.
http://eagletimes.villagesoup.com/p/cosmos-fall-to-woodstock/1421155

Cosmos fall to Woodstock By TIM TAYLOR | Oct 02, 2015 Photo by: Tim Taylor Springfield’s Lexie Bellows puts some air under the ball during Thursday’s game against Woodstock. f Springfield goalkeeper Grace Morvan makes a save during Thursday’s game. (Photo by: Tim Taylor) Enlarge... SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield girls soccer team played plenty of defense on Thursday and played it well much of the game. However, the Cosmos would get stung by Woodstock’s Kaija twins, who accounted for all the points in a 3-0 victory. Lauren Kaija would rack up a hat trick with sister Abby recording an assist on each one. Along with the impact of the twins, Springfield spent the majority of the first half trying to get the ball away from a team which is clearly skillful in the ball control department. “The problem isn’t finishing,” said Springfield coach Jade Costello. “It’s just fatigue, because this is a very good team, the best passing team in the MVL I think, Woodstock is. When you chase and chase and chase for 15 minutes and then you get a chance it’s very hard to execute a shot on goal. “I’d say they possessed 90 percent of the time in the first half, so we were tired after 40 minutes. We’ve got to work on possessing. We’ve got to work on sort of mirroring their passing style, which is something we’ve been preaching since August. We’ll get there. And to finish when you’re that tired after chasing around a good team like that.” Despite the Wasps’ impressive possession tactics, the Cosmos were able to hold the visitors at bay for more than 25 minutes before giving up a goal. The first tally came with 14:20 left in the first half when a Cosmos player slipped on the soft, soggy turf while moving the ball up the middle of the field about 35 away from her team’s goal. Woodstock was able to gather up the ball and Lauren Kaija would move in close and cross a shot into the right corner of the goal, just past the outstretched hand of diving Springfield goalkeeper Grace Morvan. The Wasps would double their advantage at the half when Abby Kaija slipped a pass through the defense to her sister who was open inside the 18. Woodstock’s final goal came with 26:38 remaining in the second half when Morvan charged out after a ball and Lauren Kaija was able to get it by her to push the lead to 3-0. Springfield, which rarely put the ball in the Woodstock end early in the contest, put up a couple of threats early in the second, but didn’t really begin to challenge until the final 16 minutes of the game. Calista Polidor would get deep into the Woodstock zone twice in the game’s latter stages, but solid defensive efforts by prohibited her from lining up any solid shots at Wasps goalie Kaila Lemmer. The Cosmos’ best scoring opportunities came during a flurry of corner kicks, four to be exact, but Lemmer knocked Lexie Bellows’ inbound to Lina Geyer out of bounds, Sarah Findiesen booted the next two OB and Anna Diffenbach defended well in front of the goal on the final try. Morvan made seven saves for the Cosmos and Lemmer had five for Woodstock, which is now 6-3-1. Springfield (2-7) held a 4-1 edge in corner kicks. Costello didn’t make any excuses for the loss, even though most of the players are battling illness. “Our whole team right now has got a little bug that we’re just trying to work through, but that’s October soccer,” said Costello. “You’re dinged up you’re sick, you’re tired. We’ve got to push through that, but it’s hard. We’ve got a really hard string of games coming up, so when the kids get chances to rest they’ve got to get rest and be ready. We’ve got to go up to Mill River on Saturday and that’s never an easy game, but we’ll be ready.”