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10/25/2020 12:00 AMThe North Haven girls’ soccer team earned its first win of the season when Head Coach Gary Collins’s squad claimed a 5-4 victory at Lyman Hall on Oct. 20. North Haven was scheduled to play Mercy on Oct. 23, but the game was canceled after North Haven High School was closed when it was determined that someone in the building had tested positive for COVID-19.
After losing its first five games of the year, North Haven got in the win column with a 5-4 road victory over Lyman Hall in a back-and-forth contest on Oct. 20. Junior Ada Forbes and sophomore Lily Coish both scored two goals for North Haven in the game. Forbes gave North Haven the lead for good when she scored with five minutes remaining in the contest.
“It was one of those games that two teams played very hard and went all out for their first win of the season,” Coach Collins said. “We came out on top by a good team effort and working hard for each other.”
North Haven and Lyman Hall were locked in a 2-2 at halftime when they squared off at Fitzgerald Field in Wallingford. North Haven controlled play with good possession of the ball for most of the half as Coach Collins’s squad tried to get its faster players behind Lyman Hall’s defense.
Coish had a couple of good scoring opportunities early in the game. In the 5th minute of the contest, Coish took a pass from sophomore Giavanna Damone and sent the ball home to give North Haven a 1-0 lead.
Forbes made it 2-0 when she scored on an assist from senior Sophia Acquarulo in the 13th minute. Lyman Hall came back by scoring two goals in a six-minute span to make it 2-2 at the break.
Lyman Hall took its momentum into the second half and scored the first goal of the stanza to take a 3-2 lead. North Haven kept pressing and creating quality opportunities, one of which led to an own goal by Lyman Hall off a shot by Coish in the 43rd minute, equalizing the score at 3-3.
Coish put North Haven up 4-3 when she dribbled past a few defenders and sent a low shot to the corner of the goal in the 68th minute of the game. Lyman Hall responded with a goal shortly thereafter that knotted the score at 4-all.
Both teams kept playing hard in an effort to net the go-ahead goal. In the 75th minute, North Haven broke down Lyman Hall’s defense, and Forbes used her speed to slip past the middle defenders and score the game-winner that gave North Haven a 5-4 advantage.
Junior goalkeeper Annalise Moulis made two saves in goal for North Haven. Freshman goalie Erika Fronte came up with a few clutch saves in net during the second half of the victory.
Coach Collins said that Damone has done a great job of switching from outside back to a holding midfielder position and added that Acquarulo has been providing North Haven with consistent play this season. Collins also said that senior captain Carly Fresher and sophomore Ilana Blumenthal turned in solid performances on defense against Lyman Hall.
Sophomore defenders Samantha Adams and Aisling Pretty got their first varsity starts in the Lyman Hall game, and both athletes made some key plays in critical moments during the second half of the matchup. Freshmen Rebecca Ford and Cameron Ryan are two freshman starters for North Haven.
After last week’s game against Mercy got canceled, North Haven’s scheduled Oct. 27 contest versus Hamden was also canceled following the closing of the high school. As of press time, North Haven still had games against Cheshire, West Haven, and Sacred Heart remaining on its regular-season schedule.
“Unfortunately, the season is on pause,” Coach Collins said. “But hopefully, we can get back and continue playing and feed off of this win to finish the season.”