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Lady Cardinals Advance in FCIACs After Overtime Thriller

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The Greenwich High School girls soccer team advanced to the FCIAC semifinal round with a 1-0 overtime victory. (John Ferris Robben photo)
The Greenwich High School girls soccer team advanced to the FCIAC semifinal round with a 1-0 overtime victory. (John Ferris Robben photo)

Despite needing two overtime sessions to secure a victory, Greenwich defeated Fairfield Ludlowe High School 1-0 in the FCIAC quarterfinals at Cardinal Stadium in a back and forth battle on Friday night.

In the 95th minute, Emily Berzolla gave the Cardinals the game-clinching goal to put Greenwich in the FCIAC semifinals next week.

“Our goal was to surprise them with our energy off the bench,” Berzolla, a senior forward, said. “Four players came off the bench in the second overtime which I think gave us the energy and strength to go forward and score. Coach wanted us to press up on their last defender and make them uncomfortable.”

The No. 4 seeded Cardinals and the No. 5 seed Ludlowe battled for full regulation time without recording a goal, but there were plenty opportunities to go around for both sides.

Treloara Harrison had three opportunities for Greenwich in the first half, with the first two sailing over the crossbar, as her third shot on goal of the half from 30 yards out resulted in a score being called back due to an offside call.

A late Ludlowe push in the second half would keep Greenwich on their toes in a defensive mode, but regulation ended without a score and two 10-minute overtime sessions began.

After the first overtime, head coach Danny Simpson made adjustments to his lineup to put fresh bodies on the field after playing 90 minutes of scoreless soccer.

“The girls gave a lot in the first half,” Simpson said. “After the first overtime we rested them. We put in some players that haven’t been on the field yet and we asked them for 10 minutes of hard work and it paid dividends because in that last overtime period we had the little bit more energy we needed to finish the game.”

Simpson recalled that in the first meeting between Greenwich and Ludlowe, it was Berzolla who recorded a pair of goals in a 2-0 victory over the Falcons.

“Emily has been a phenomenal player for us shooting the ball. After coming off her sick bed yesterday, she put together a good performance today.”

After the overtime goal, Big Red had to finish off Ludlowe in the final four minutes of the game to clinch the semifinal berth, but suffered a scare of their own after an injury temporarily stopped the game.

Harrison, a standout senior midfielder, came out of the game in the final minutes after a collision with a Ludlowe player. Simpson hopes that one of his team’s leaders will be able to get back to action for Greenwich’s upcoming FCIAC semifinal match.

“She’s a warrior,” Simpson said of the injured Harrison. “She gives us everything she has in every single game. She’s contributed to a lot of our goals. We’re hoping to get her iced up and ready for Monday.”

Up next for the Cardinals will be a semifinal match against the top-seeded and undefeated St. Joseph High School. In the season opener, the Cadets routed Greenwich 8-0, but with a FCIAC title berth on the line, Big Red is focused on flipping the script and playing the spoiler role against St. Joe’s on Monday in Wilton.

“Coming into today, we weren’t going to talk about the semifinals until we got past the quarterfinals,” Berzolla said. “We didn’t get ahead of ourselves.”

“We struggled against St. Joes in the past but now we know what their strengths are and we’re a totally different team from back then.”

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