WHATELY — The offensive opportunities were plentiful for the Frontier Regional School girls soccer team on Monday.
The Red Hawks recorded 34 shots against visiting Athol, most of them coming in the second half, en route to a convincing 4-0 victory in a Pioneer North contest at Herlihy Park.
“We stepped it up as far as the passing goes,” Frontier coach Phil Pittelli said. “But our finishing was horrible.”
Natalie Denkiewicz scored twice in the first half for the Red Hawks (2-0-2).
“We played well,” Denkiewicz said. “Had a lot of the possession. There wasn’t as much intensity as there could have been. We had a lot of shots and that’s good, but not a lot of them went in.”
Denkiewicz came off the field briefly in the first half and had a slight limp after getting her foot stepped on trying to get a shot off.
“I got my toe crunched,” she said. “I thought it was my toenail. I couldn’t put pressure on it.”
Grace O’Leary and Alena Maes-Polan assisted on Denkiewicz’s goals.
Makayla Santos added another tally just before the half with Samantha Scanlon assisting.
Cambrie Hamilton played in her first game of the season after missing time with a back injury.
“She looked pretty good,” Pittelli said of Hamilton. “She adds a lot of composure to the game. She is quick and her touches are always on point. It will be nice to get back into a normal rotation.”
The Red Raiders got 12 saves from Haley Wrigley, who was very busy throughout the game dealing with Frontier’s offensive pressure.
Athol (0-3) played with 13 players and trailed 3-0 at halftime.
“We got a little better as the game went on,” Athol coach Tim Cleveland said. “We said, ‘Let’s try to win the second half’ and we only gave up one (goal). They pressured us almost the entire half. The defense did step up.”
The Red Hawks pinned Athol’s defense back in its own end for most of the second half. Athol’s Taylor Cleveland, Hannah York, Madelyn Robertson and Rozlyn Nelson did their best to slow Frontier’s attack.
“We have some things to figure out,” Cleveland said. “Nothing is clicking right now. There’s no reason why we can’t play with these guys. We should be better than a 4-0 ballgame.”
The Red Raiders had two offensive opportunities on semi-breakaways. In the first half, Grace Dufour got loose for a moment but Frontier’s Sierra Warren caught up with her to force a shot wide.
Ally Raymond broke away for Athol in the second half with a chance to score. Frontier keeper Siomara Green came off her line to attack Raymond’s dribble. Green dove at Raymond’s feet and snuffed out the chance before Raymond could get a shot on net.
Frontier added one more goal in the 75th minute, when Victoria Speth’s pass from around midfield sent Jessica Wrisley down the field toward Athol’s net.
Wrisley settled and sent a hard, accurate shot past Wrigley to close the scoring.
Frontier 4, Athol 0
|
Athol |
0 |
0 |
— |
0 |
|
Frontier |
3 |
1 |
— |
4 |
Goals: (F) Denkiewicz 2, Santos, Wrisley
Assists: (F) Maes-Polan, O’Leary, Scanlon, Speth
Saves: (A) Wrigley 12. (F) Green 0.
