Angels Win League Opener

From the outset of the game, the Angels looked the stronger team. Their control through the central midfield with Ava MacFarlane ’20 and Mikayla Stelling ’21 was dominant. Crofton had their strongest asset in their backfield, which contributed to LFA’s midfield control. Possession was lopsided and Crofton struggled with the organized press LFA applied. Still, Crofton is well organized and defended soundly. Their goalie was excellent and LFA’s chances weren’t taken decisively. The scoreless draw persisted through several LFA short corners until Allison Kuzyk ’20 got a hold of decent drag flick that found the upper right corner of the net to pull LFA ahead.

While LFA continued to have much of the attack, quality chances in the D weren’t taken and, by half time, the score remained only 1-0. Crofton came out in the second half better organized and their #23 was given the green light to run at us. While it caused some problems, individual 50 yard runs are tough to sustain. Their press, however, proved more problematic. Despite some lovely work by our outside backs Mimi Wallace ’20 and Francesca Yep ’20 to feed the ball into the middle of the pitch, the extra pressure caused turn-overs and the game seemed to get mired down in the middle of the pitch. When Crofton did manage to break through, Hannah McGee ’20 proved more than up to the task in net as she calmly swatted away a handful of manageable shots.

With so much skill in the middle of the pitch, we discovered some counter attack when we moved the ball forward quickly. Gracie Korac ’20 was extremely effective up front and will be sad not have had a better scoring opportunity on a couple of occasions. In the end, with about 10 minutes to go, Allison broke free from some cynical tackles around the 25 and made a nice strong-side move at the top of the D. A clinical finisher, she calmly waited for the goalie to challenge and slipped a looping ball to the left side meshing of the net to double our lead.

Now two goals up, the game again returned to a largely mid-field battle with few opportunities to either team. The game wrapped up 2-0 which largely reflected the play. In the post-game discussion, the team felt they had more to give. Early in the season, it’s an excellent result against a good team. It is also a good building block towards qualification for Provincials, where league standings will make the pathway much easier for the top place team.