Lady Squires Fall In Soccer Regional
October 17, 2016 at 4:28 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
Head coach Jen Birch made a few changes to help improve her squad’s defense for the 1A girls soccer regional Saturday against Bellmont.
The plan worked for the most part. But Manchester couldn’t get much going when it had the ball, and the result was a 3-0 win for the Lady Braves.
Senior Ryann Velez had the only goal of the first half on a penalty kick. She was knocked down just before shooting inside the box, and put her PK in the right side of the net in the 33rd minute.
Manchester had a couple of scoring opportunities in the early part of the second half, but never got a good shot off.
“We’ve had a hard time offensively all season. We’re not quite the team that scores goals,” Birch said. “Defense is definitely our strength, and we rearranged our players to make it even stronger. We pulled from the top to make our back even better.”
The second Lady Brave score came when a penalty kick found its way to the ground, and Kristen Harvey knocked in a second rebound off Manchester goalkeeper Kiera Stacy in the 64th minute.
From that point, Bellmont was quite content to play defense, with the majority of the remainder of the match played between the penalty boxes. Velez picked up her second goal of the match when her shot from about 40 yards out bounced over Stacy’s head and into the net.
Birch had a lot of praise for the Lady Braves as well as her team.
“Bellmont’s a really strong team. From what we’ve seen they move the ball well, they see each other well, they get the through ball; they’re just a very talented team,” she said. “And our strength all season has been our defense. So we were hoping to just ‘park the bus,’ play great defense and then finish the game. I truly believe we just did that. They scored off a penalty kick, they scored off a foul in the corner, then we had one let-up.
“I think my girls played fantastic, and I’m super-proud of their effort, their desire and their heart they showed on the field.”
Bellmont (17-3) advanced to the LaVille Semistate, where they will play Lafayette Central Catholic (15-4-2) at 10 a.m. Saturday. Westview and Andrean play in the other semifinal at noon, with the winners playing at 7 p.m. for a spot in the state title game.
Manchester finished its season with a 13-5-1 record.
BELLMONT 3, MANCHESTER 0
B 1 2 – 3
M 0 0 – 0
B – Ryann Velez (PK) 33rd min.
B – Kristen Harvey (unassisted) 64th min.
B – Velez (unassisted) 73rd min.
Records: Bellmont 17-3, Manchester 13-5-1
Head coach Jen Birch made a few changes to help improve her squad’s defense for the 1A girls soccer regional Saturday against Bellmont.
The plan worked for the most part. But Manchester couldn’t get much going when it had the ball, and the result was a 3-0 win for the Lady Braves.
Senior Ryann Velez had the only goal of the first half on a penalty kick. She was knocked down just before shooting inside the box, and put her PK in the right side of the net in the 33rd minute.
Manchester had a couple of scoring opportunities in the early part of the second half, but never got a good shot off.
“We’ve had a hard time offensively all season. We’re not quite the team that scores goals,” Birch said. “Defense is definitely our strength, and we rearranged our players to make it even stronger. We pulled from the top to make our back even better.”
The second Lady Brave score came when a penalty kick found its way to the ground, and Kristen Harvey knocked in a second rebound off Manchester goalkeeper Kiera Stacy in the 64th minute.
From that point, Bellmont was quite content to play defense, with the majority of the remainder of the match played between the penalty boxes. Velez picked up her second goal of the match when her shot from about 40 yards out bounced over Stacy’s head and into the net.
Birch had a lot of praise for the Lady Braves as well as her team.
“Bellmont’s a really strong team. From what we’ve seen they move the ball well, they see each other well, they get the through ball; they’re just a very talented team,” she said. “And our strength all season has been our defense. So we were hoping to just ‘park the bus,’ play great defense and then finish the game. I truly believe we just did that. They scored off a penalty kick, they scored off a foul in the corner, then we had one let-up.
“I think my girls played fantastic, and I’m super-proud of their effort, their desire and their heart they showed on the field.”
Bellmont (17-3) advanced to the LaVille Semistate, where they will play Lafayette Central Catholic (15-4-2) at 10 a.m. Saturday. Westview and Andrean play in the other semifinal at noon, with the winners playing at 7 p.m. for a spot in the state title game.
Manchester finished its season with a 13-5-1 record.
BELLMONT 3, MANCHESTER 0
B 1 2 – 3
M 0 0 – 0
B – Ryann Velez (PK) 33rd min.
B – Kristen Harvey (unassisted) 64th min.
B – Velez (unassisted) 73rd min.
Records: Bellmont 17-3, Manchester 13-5-1
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