The Cranford Girls’ Soccer team continues to fly under the radar, overshadowed in its own town by an undefeated boy’s team and in the county by Westfield, the state’s third rated girl’s team. But the Cougars seem content to go about their business and have now compiled an impressive seven game winning streak that has raised their record to 8-1-1, following a 4-0 victory over Kent Place in the first round of the Union County Tournament, Saturday October 10 at Memorial Field.
Under brilliant autumn sunshine, the girls made quick work of a team that they had defeated 3-0 earlier in the season. Junior forward Natalie Englese took a perfectly placed pass from Victoria Labrutto and used her speed to hit a strong right footed shot into the corner of the goal from ten yards with 32:13 left. “It was a well set up play. I had space and all I had to do was kick it,” said Englese.
Senior forward Jamie Webb made it 2-0 with a left footed shot with 21 minutes left. “I am normally a right footed shooter but the play made sense to use my left,” said Webb.
Michelle Gargiuolo added a third goal before halftime and the Cougars were content to play a possession game in the second half to limit their opponents from many good scoring chances. Junior Julianne Salerno provided the only second half scoring when her right footed shot found the mark with 23:40 left. Seniors Lauren Grandal and Genevieve Chaleff, who have shared time in goal most of the year, each played a half to share the shutout. Coach Jen Michewicz was pleased with the way the team kept the pressure through the entire game.
“The girls have really started to come together as a team. Each player has elevated their individual level of play which has had quite an impact on the entire team. In previous years, the team had difficulty playing consistently for 80 minutes. This year’s team has proven that they are able to do that.” said Michewicz, who is fortunate to have senior leadership at nearly every part of the field.
Senior midfielder Jen Folger does not score many goals but she is invaluable as a distributor and controlled the game against Kent Place. “My job is to get everybody involved and keep the ball moving. As long as we score goals, I am happy to let other players score. We have a lot of talented offensive players,” said Folger.
Senior forward Sarah Dowzycki leads the balanced attack with six goals. Senior central defender Taylor D'Antico leads the stingy defensive unit along with senior Kristen Cecchini. Webb, Englese and Gargiulo form a solid midfield.
“The team has found composure with the ball at their feet. They have been working on combination play and recognizing when to play to feet and when to play to space. We had many fine sequences where we connected on numerous passes in a row. We have the ability to be a very good possession team,” said Michewicz.
The victory advanced the Cougars to the quarterfinal round where they will travel to Union on Saturday October 17 to face the fourth seeded Farmers. A victory would likely give the Cougars the rematch they have sought with top seeded Westfield, which handed the Cougars their only defeat, but Michewicz realizes there is plenty of work to be done before that would transpire.
“In order to win the county, the team needs to continue to play consistently with that urgency to put the ball in the back of the net. So far we have been improving each and every game,” said Michewicz.
The Cougars ran their winning streak to eight and their record to 9-1-1 with a 6-0 home victory over Elizabeth on Monday October 12. Folger, Gargiulo, Danielle Jakubik, Labrutto, Emily Lupin and Rebecca Shafer each scored
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