The Greenwich High School girls’ soccer team has some high goals set for this season. Although they didn’t have the start to the season they were hoping for last week against the Cadets, they were able to come back strong against the Vikings.
Playing high-powered St. Joseph High School, the Cadets scored early and often en route to an 8-0 victory over the Cardinals.
“St. Joe’s came out very hungry,” Greenwich High School head coach Danny Simpson said. “They got off to a phenomenal start. They had two early goals, and I think our head dropped a little bit. But as we were trying to find our feet, they were relentless. Hats off to them. They’ve been the strongest team in the league for the last three or four years. This was a good benchmark to start our season.”
For the Cadets, Lindsay Savko, Marissa Grasso and Jenna Bike led the way with two goals each. Not to be outdone were the duo of Dori Grasso and Jessica Mazo, who each finished with one goal.
Nobody had more assists than Leah Lewis, who finished with four on the day.
For Big Red, the play of its goalie, junior Emma Barefoot, was stellar. Although St. Joe’s was able to get on the scoreboard a bunch of times, it could have been a lot worse.
“Our starting keeper was phenomenal,” Simpson said. “Emma was lights out today. Without her performance, we would have been looking at an American football score. She moved really well and was aggressive in making the saves.”
With the loss, the Cardinals fell to 0-1 on the season. For Greenwich, it’s all about learning from the game and gearing up for the rest of the season.
“This is just game one,” Simpson said. “There are 15 more games. I was able to go deep into my bench and see players today more than I have all preseason. That was pleasing. This game was an eye-opener, and it shows that we have to work harder.”
Using its game against St. Joe’s as motivation, Greenwich came back and blasted Westhill High School 5-0.
Both Katherine Gallagher and Emily Berzolla each finished with two goals, while teammate Anna Gianuuzzi added another goal. In net, Barefoot was stellar yet again, finishing with the shutout and 6 saves on the day.
Working hard is something that Big Red has done throughout the preseason. Without an appearance in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference tournament for the past several seasons, it’s safe to say that the Cardinals are hungry to get back there.
“We have a lot of good returning players and some young fresh faces to push them, but we are expecting a lot out of our senior class,” Simpson said. “We have our top goal scorer coming back, we have a very strong midfield coming back, and we have a returning sophomores that are now juniors in the backfield. We also have a junior goalkeeper that has had many years of experience at the varsity level.”
Since 2007, Greenwich High has competed in three FCIAC title games, winning the crown in 2007 and 2011, and tying St. Joseph in 2012. And all the Cardinals agree that the top priority this season is getting back to the conference tournament.
“This is the time where we reinstate our position in the FCIAC,” senior captain Emily Berzolla said. “We have a strong enough team where we could do it this year and it’s one of our top goals. We are working on our defense this year and focusing on that.”
“It’s very important and that’s why we put it as our top goal,” Simpson said. “We’ve had two years outside the FCIAC, so we want to make it this year again. It’s our first goal. These girls understand that being an athlete at Greenwich High School, we demand the best. They understand that and are willing to accept it and deliver. After that we will see where that lands us.”
Senior captain Katie Harford has been on the team for a while and said she would like nothing more than to get back into the conference tourney.
“The last couple of years we’ve stumbled a little bit, but I think this is the year where we have to up the intensity,” Harford said. “We’ve tried to over the past couple of years, but I’m not sure we had the heart to do it. I think this senior class is different because we are really close and know each other really well.”
Helping Big Red reach its goal this year will be senior captains Callie Doyle, Harford and Brerzolla.
“It feels great to lead this team,” Berzolla said. “We have a really solid team this year and have a pretty strong senior class. We’ve been here long enough and sort of gotten used to the program. I think we are going to have a great year.”
“They know what to expect from me, what to expect from the program and I expect them to be role models,” Simpson said. “They need to push the players to the fullest.”
In goal, Barefoot has had a great preseason and was a backup to Kylie Ginsberg last season as a sophomore. Junior Amanda Yu will be the mainstay in front of Barefoot at defense, with Katie Kate and Erin Curtis seeing action this season as well.
“Defense is the one area that we would like to strengthen the most,” Simpson said. “We have conceded a lot of goals in the past couple of years, which has probably hindered our opportunity to go to FCIACs. We are going to start with defense and build our team on defense. Be hard to beat, be hard to score against and we have the forwards to finish teams off.”
When it comes to experience on the pitch, Greenwich has plenty in the midfield. Leading the way will be Berzolla and Doyle, while fellow seniors Treloara Harrisson and Jessica Bartholomew will add to the depth.
“It’s going to be a fun season and I’m excited for it,” Doyle said. “We have a lot of older girls on the team that have been here since sophomore year. There’s a solid seven of us that have been playing together since the third grade. It’s exciting to teach the younger people what the program is all about.”
“We have a great midfield,” Simpson said. “They could all score and they could all create. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on them.”
Making her back to the attack this year is senior Anna Giannuzzi, last year’s leading scorer on Greenwich. One of the keys for Big Red is that sophomores Kim Kockenmeister and Katherine Gallagher are back this year and played quality minutes last year as freshmen. Added into the mix will be senior Meaghan Grund.
“Everybody wants to do really well this season,” Doyle said. “I think everybody is really motivated to work hard so we can get far in the playoffs. A lot of the fitness we’ve been doing is focused on making ourselves better and pushing each other. We know it will pay off later in the season.”
While Simpson believes that the strength of this year’s team will be unity, accomplished play on the field and team chemistry, he knows there’s still work to be done.
“We start off the season with six very tough games,” Simpson said. “We want to just get better and better, so that way when we get to FCIACs, we know what it’s going to take to be the best one out there.”
