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10/16/2016 12:00 AMThe Westbrook girls’ soccer team played two games last week and split the pair to sport a record of 4-8-1 this year. With three regular season games to play entering this week, the Knights are in position to accomplish their goal of reaching the postseason and need either two wins or one win and two ties to do so. Westbrook faced Morgan on Oct. 17 (after press time), plays at Coginchaug at 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20, and closes with the regular season with a game at Amistad at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
“I had some goals going into the season with the main one being to just right the ship, so to speak. I want to get the program heading in the right direction to be more competitive with our eye on making it to the State Tournament,” said first-year Head Coach Rob McConville. “It was an objective I wanted to set for the team. I thought it was something, once we got rolling, was attainable for this and next season. The big challenge with the first year is learning all the players and starting a program with a system that they aren’t used to.”
On Oct. 10, the Knights defeated Hale-Ray 4-0 for the team’s second win against the Noises this season. Erin Metcalfe scored twice for Westbrook, while Rene Perregaux and Christina Matute-Heredia added a goal each. Matute-Heredia also recorded an assist in the victory.
“As the season has progressed, we’ve worked on finishing and the quality of our goals has gone up considerably. We had a lot of chances. To be fair, we didn’t finish as many as we could, but the goals were all well struck,” McConville said. “Three were from outside the box and one we were able to tuck away from inside. There was a nice buildup to each goal, starting in the back. When you shut down a team as much as we did, you get to increase your offensive pressure the rest of game. The backers did a good job of making sure their offense couldn’t get anything going and we did a good job of finishing our opportunities.”
Westbrook’s defense held Hale-Ray to just one shot on goal that Lexi Vumback stopped to earn her third shutout of the season.
“The defense played very well in that game. The way I coach is we basically start out of the back and go forward. Defense has been a heavy focus of mine this season,” Coach McConville said. “From a stat line perspective, we’ve cut our goals given up in half from last year. Keeping the goals against to a minimum will put us in a position to be successful, which has been evident in our games so far.”
On Oct. 13, Westbrook lost a tight matchup against Shoreline Conference foe Old Saybrook by the final score of 4-3. Metcalfe was dominant on the offense end by recording a hat trick, scoring one of her goals on a free kick. The Knights jumped out to a fast 2-0 lead in the first 15 minutes, but allowed the Rams to even the score at 2 later in the half. In a seesaw battle, Metcalfe netted her third goal of the game to give the Knights a 3-2 lead heading into the break.
“The game was back and forth and was our most competitive game of the season,” McConville said. “Old Saybrook doesn’t give up a lot of goals, so that was positive for us. To be up at the half against a top program like Old Saybrook was something that was new for us.”
Unfortunately for the Knights, they were unable to hold on to the lead. Vumback made 16 saves in the game, but Old Saybrook scored twice in the second half to come away with the victory.
“They just kind of increased their offensive pressure. They had a player up top that was tough for us to contain. They broke free and scored the tying goal and then there was a defensive breakdown on the last goal given up,” McConville said. “What I consider a major victory was level of effort they put into that game. We didn’t quit throughout and even had an opportunity to tie it on a free kick, but couldn’t take advantage. It was a very even game. For us as a team, I don’t know if we’d be capable of playing at that level earlier in the year. It was a shining moment for us, competitive wise.”
Coach McConville believes that Westbrook is adapting well to his system as its athletes continue to grow as a group. The coach wants the Knights to play their best at the right time of the season and feels that senior captain Adara Bochanis in helping to lead that charge.
“Adara has been doing a great job leading the team, but my focus is always cohesion and roles. Everyone has their role, so if everybody does their role to support the other players, we’ll be successful,” he said. “We have a lot of young players--a lot of sophomores and juniors and even a few freshmen giving us good time. Putting that pressure on a young squad, they’ve stepped up as a whole group, and Adara has done great leading the way as a senior leader for them.”