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09/23/2016 12:00 AMAfter reaching the cusp of Shoreline Conference supremacy last year, the Morgan girls’ soccer team has emerged strong from starting gate in 2016 as it tries to get back to the league final and beyond.
Last season, Head Coach Megan Kilbride’s club went 13-5-1 in a campaign that saw the Huskies finish second in the Shoreline for the regular season and beat Valley Regional 1-0 in the conference semis before taking a 4-0 defeat to Old Lyme in the title game. After that, Morgan lost to Bethel on penalty kicks in the first round of states. Although the Huskies graduated a ton of talent from that squad, especially on the defensive front, they’ve navigated the early waters quite well this fall to the tune of a 3-3-1 start that includes a 1-0 win at Portland on Sept. 20 and a 1-1 tie with Valley Regional on Sept. 22.
“Our goal every year is to be competitive as possible and the Shoreline is a competitive league. We are a young team, but it’s just about either eliminating or making up for those mistakes that are expected with a young team,” said Coach Kilbride. “We might fall short versus some teams and we might also pick off some others. We will continue to be competitive and I think we will be right there at the end of the year.”
Seniors Shannon Maher, a Second Team All-Shoreline selection last season, and Olivia Digiandomenico will serve as captains for Morgan for this year. Both athletes have similar back stories regarding their treks up the varsity ranks and are bringing plenty of heart and determination to the Huskies this fall.
“Shannon works so hard. She would probably run through a wall if she was asked to. She’s that competitive. She played a little varsity her freshman year, but then went full-time varsity as a sophomore. She’s our lone returning defender, so her leadership, combined with that experience, will be important,” said Kilbride. “Olivia is in the same situation with having little varsity time as a freshman and then coming on as a sophomore. She is like the mom of the team because she has great compassion and is someone the girls go to for thoughtful explanations on things. She is approachable to the girls in tough situations and she works really hard.”
Helping Maher on the defensive end will be another returning starter in senior netminder Kate Driscoll, who’s pitched consecutive shutouts against North Branford (a 2-0 win on Sept. 15) and Portland (in which she made 5 saves) this season. On the forward line, the Huskies deploy junior Courtney Viglione, alongside sophomore Alyssa LeMay.
“Kate is a returning starter that will help solidify the defense with Shannon and she’s made big plays so far,” said Kilbride. “Courtney has been impressive thus far and her soccer IQ is on point. Alyssa is a pure goal scorer. We need her to score goals and she knows that. She is trying to step up to the pressure and she really looks for that pressure.”
In the Portland victory, sophomore Madison Emmi scored the deciding goal to push the Huskies to a 1-0 victory.
For the tie against Valley Regional, Digiandomenico scored a goal on an assist from sophomore Grace Roman to put the Huskies ahead at the half before the Warriors tied it. Driscoll made seven saves in net for the Huskies, who concluded the week with a 6-1 loss to East Lyme on Sept. 24.
Prior to last week’s action, Morgan split a pair of contests by taking a 5-2 loss to Old Lyme in a rematch of the 2015 Shoreline Conference final and then blanking North Branford 2-0 a few days later. In the Old Lyme loss, Viglione and Taylor Wyatt scored for Morgan, while Driscoll and LeMay had the assists.
“I was very impressed with Old Lyme’s offense, but was thrilled with how our defense was able to hold them off at the start,” said Kilbride. “Our offense struggled to get going because we were set in too much defensively and, once we sorted out our attack, it was just too late.”
LeMay and Viglione produced Morgan’s goals in the victory versus the T-Birds, plus Issy Ranaudo and Emmi had the helpers on the scores. Driscoll made four saves in net for the Huskies.
“Once we slowed down our offensive build-up in the second half, we were in good shape. Especially with the play of [North Branford’s goalkeeper Allie Augur], we had to take our time and make her move with our attack,” said Kilbride on the winning effort.
Coach Kilbride sees both the pros and cons of having such a young team this year, but she’s confident that the Huskies will be in tip-top postseason form after challenging themselves with a loaded regular season slate.
“Being so young is both a strength and a weakness for us. We are going to have to work hard with it in order to pick off teams. We had a tough Portland win and I was impressed that we were able to do it. Being so young, we will see how well they recoup as the year goes on,” said Kilbride. “Valley Regional will be a big opponent for us. They’ve gotten out to a decent start. Old Lyme is also very strong. We also have some out-of-league games with two Class L teams in East Lyme and Sheehan and those games will tell us where we stand in the state. We want to push as far as possible this season.”
Megan Kilbride is in her 12th season as the Morgan girls’ soccer team’s head coach.
Assisting on the Morgan coaching staff are Steve Sullivan, who’s also in his 12th year, plus Jessica Choronzy, who’s in her second season.
Coach Kilbride notched her 100th win last fall with a 1-0 victory over Valley Regional on Sept. 29. She now has 111 career victories.