By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor
The hunt for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference class LL tournament is on for the Greenwich High School girls’ soccer team, although it seemed like a postseason berth would only be a dream just a few short weeks ago.
“The morale of the team is great,” said Greenwich High head coach Danny Simpson. “They have been playing well, but they haven’t been rewarded with the results. When the results go in your favor, it sort of justifies all the hard work that you put into practice and leading up to the game.”
The Lady Cardinals picked up its fourth win of the season Monday afternoon, as they crushed Trinity Catholic 5-0.
“I think this victory against Trinity Catholic was very important and it does a lot for our confidence,” Senior captain Katherine Tracey said. “It boosted our morale. We have the momentum and we hope to keep it going. We are looking to get into states and getting the win against Trinity helps the confidence and shows us that we really can keep it going.”
With only three more games to play, Big Red is making a big push towards the postseason. As of press time, Greenwich is 4-8-1 on the season. While that’s not the ideal record Simpson and the rest of the Cardinals were hoping for at this point of the season, its heads and shoulders better than three weeks ago.
Greenwich started the season with a 6-1 loss to Darien. The next six games, Big Red wasn’t able to find the back of the net. On Oct. 4, GHS hosted Trumbull and although they didn’t get the result they were hoping for, falling 3-2, Greenwich gained some confidence and found the back of the net twice.
And that started something for Simpson’s squad. In their next game they upended Norwalk 2-1 and have won three of its last four games since then.
Later today they travel up to Danbury for a game against the Hatters.
Saturday night, Greenwich travels up to Fairfield Ludlowe High School for a match against the Falcons. On Tuesday, the Cards return home for the regular season finale against Brien McMahon High School. Game time is slated for 6 p.m.
“We have a few games left and a lot to play for,” Simpson said. “It’s a matter of every game is like a playoff game. Hopefully we will take our momentum into our remaining games and keep this going.”
And if the GHS girls’ soccer team can qualify for the class LL tourney, there will be plenty of smiles on both the players and the coaching staff.
“It would be justification for the growth they have had, being willing to learn every day for six to eight weeks. If we do make it, we would have earned it. If we don’t make it, they will realize when they fell short. But we are giving it every effort. If come Oct. 24 we can sit down and know that we have two weeks to prepare for a state game, I would be the happiest coach in the FCIAC.”
For Greenwich to get to the state tourney, Simpson believes it’s quite simple.
“We can’t accept second,” the head coach said. “Winning attitudes aren’t a given. The experience we have had on the field, playing and competing, has been very valuable.”
Starting things off on the right foot for Greenwich was its performance against Trinity Catholic High School on Monday afternoon.
Against the Crusaders, Big Red scored three times in the first half and twice more in the second. In a complete team effort, five different Cardinals found the back of the net. Katie Gallagher, Julia Abbazia and Sol Binaghi each tallied goals in the first half, while Aubrey Dyckman and Sophia Revelle each scored in the second frame.
“Before today we had four games left in the regular season and we knew we had to gain some momentum. It was important for us to get the win. We made sure today to get a lot of players more playing time and sat a lot of players that played a lot to give them some more rest and healing. It was a good game and the objectives that we set up for them at the beginning of the game were met.”
One of the issues for Greenwich throughout the season was getting a team, where close to 60 percent of the starting roster is new to the varsity squad, to gel as a unit. The other problem was that Big Red was trying to do that while playing in the FCIAC, one of the toughest soccer conferences around.
As of press time, St. Joseph (11-1-1) leads the conference with only one loss. Ridgefield (11-2-0) isn’t far behind with two losses. Westhill (9-2-3) and Staples (9-2-2) also have two losses on the season. Not to be forgotten are Wilton and Darien, as both only lost three times this season.
“That’s the great thing about the FCIAC,” Simpson said. “You have to be on your game, every game, for 16 games. You aren’t just given an FCIAC title. To compete in this league, no matter how tough you are, is a tough ask. To get to the top of the mountain here is even greater. There’s a big learning curve going on this season but their attitude towards it has been fantastic.”
Simpson said that he’s seen much improvement since the start of the season, which is the main reason for Big Red’s push toward the postseason.
“They’ve identified that they needed to step to the ball quicker,” Simpson said. “They identified that they need to play the game quicker. They needed to be in a little better shape. They took that on their own. They always kept a positive attitude and kept every one positive. They all understood their roles. In some games, some girls played a lot and others didn’t, depending on the opposition. For the most part, every team we played this year, we gave them a tough game.”
Regardless of the outcome, Tracey couldn’t be more proud of the team for not giving up at the beginning of the season and knows that the future is bright for Big Red.
“We came into the season and had a rough start, but we kept our heads up and kept giving 100 percent in every practice and every game,” Tracey said. “All of the upperclassmen are confident that in a few years when the younger athletes on the team are leading the team that they will set a great example. We’ve been so impressed with what they have to offer.”
