Girls

U10 Hawks 3, Arlington 0
Red Hook 5, U11 Phoenix 0

Boys

U9 Vikings 1, Beacon 1
U10 Force 3, LaGrange 3
U14 Arsenal 7, Shrub Oak 4

Game summaries provided by Philipstown Soccer Club:

Girls U10 Hawks Defeat Arlington

The Girls’ U10 Hawks traveled to Arlington on Sept. 17 to play in the heat of the day against the Blue Dragons. Despite the summer-like temperatures, humidity and blazing sun, the Hawks shut out Arlington, 3-0.

Just after the 1st half started, fullback Taya Robinson started a beautiful play from the Hawks’ defensive end. She sent a perfect pass to center Marisa Peters, who then fed the ball to the open space, where Olivia Moran made a quick run to boot the ball into the goal. Soon after, Marisa Peters took a strong shot from just inside the penalty box to score the second goal for the Hawks.

Early in the second half, Anna-Cat Nelson dribbled the ball down the right wing, and cut across the penalty box to score the third goal for the Hawks. Jessica Tudor, Taya Robinson and Genevieve Knox led the defense by constantly putting pressure on the Arlington forwards. Goalkeeper Ava Vasta maintained her usual composure, playing aggressively to keep the Arlington team from scoring. Kate Perrella and Sami Thomas played hard on the offensive line, while Gillie Soloviev and Fiona Mooney consistently protected the Hawks’ defensive end.

The entire Hawks team gave it their all in the oppressive heat. Coach Ralph Moran and Assistant Coach Michael Robinson were able to substitute players frequently to keep each girl fresh and hydrated, which paid off, allowing the Hawks to gain another win.

Phoenix Play Best Game of Season

The Girls U11 Phoenix, playing at full strength, showed incredible progress in a game that was much closer than the final score. The front lines of Dylan Ambrose, Lyla Chandler, Ada Caccamise, Zohra Kapoor, Morgan Murphy and Sofia Rasic set up a number of great runs with smart passing. And the defensive line of Amelia Alayon, Josie Foley-Hedlund, Laurel Sassano, and Kira Drury deflected the opposing team’s attempts with good coordination and marking, and the ones they didn’t get, goalkeeper Sophie Tomlins did.

The star of the game, however, was Amelia Alayon, who played a mobile defensive midfield in the first half, and came in as goalie in the second. Through the first half, Amelia helped intercept numerous balls before they hit the back line, and in the second half, had to face the nerve-racking challenge of a penalty shot called on an inadvertent hand ball, which she did with aplomb. While the game ended at 5-0 for Red Hook, the girls more than held their own, and with this rate of improvement, will give Red Hook quite a challenge when they meet again later in the season.

Storm Charge Ahead

Team Storm U9 Boys showed unbelievable toughness and determination against the Yorktown Titans despite playing under blistering heat and with five team members out sick or injured. In addition, their leading scorer, birthday boy Conner Keegan, got injured early on during a valiant attempt to shoot on goal and was taken out the game, leaving the Storm to defend their turf with just six players and no subs. That meant every player had to step up their play and everyone did, surpassing all previous efforts!

Griffin Lucca, Lincoln Wayland, and Gavin Mahoney were all over the ball, determined as ever, and patient to help start new plays. They played the best game of their season dribbling, passing and giving the offense a chance to make a play. The offense pushed so hard and made some unbelievably great runs. They showed great talent and showmanship, as Alex Gaugler, Chris Kordaris, and Ollie Sanders ran their hearts out.

In dramatic but calm fashion Sanders nailed his first ever goal off a penalty kick, lifting the ball into the upper left corner of Yorktown’s net. Every player deserves equal recognition because they went out and played stronger than ever, with panache and passion, despite many of the elements stacked against them! Coach Sanders and Coach Hedlund were so impressed with everyone on Team Storm.

Vikings Tie with Beacon Braves

After a competitive, deadlocked match with the Beacon Braves ended 1-1, the Boys U9 Vikings record now stands at 1-1-1. Parker Larsen, assisted by Elias Moran, scored the Vikings’ first half goal and the Braves retaliated in the second half. Strong defensive contributions from Joseph DeMarco, Rhys Williams and Patrick Shields (the team’s goalie who stopped a dozen attempts to score by the Braves) were largely responsible for holding their opponents to a single goal.

The Vikings spent a majority of the match in their opponents’ midfield, but the Braves would not succumb to offensive pressure from the Vikings. Though both teams pushed hard to score the game-winning goal, it was the Vikings who narrowly missed off the top post in the final seconds of the match. The Vikings should take pride in their performance and look forward to a home field rematch on Nov. 19, their final game of the season.

Force Battle to Draw in a Thriller

The Boys U10 Force made it two great games in a row with another instant classic. They faced the LaGrange Rockets who are always stacked and ready to play, but as with last week the Force struck first. Lincoln McCarthy wove through defenders before delivering a ball to Roth Westphal that Roth put into the back of the net to give the Force the early 1-0 lead.

LaGrange, however, could not be held down, and immediately answered with a through ball perfectly played for their center forward. The forward, the fastest player on the field, deftly tapped the ball into the corner of the net to tie the game. Lagrange scored again to take a 2-1 lead a few minutes later and the Force were in for a battle. But they were up for the challenge as great passes from Diego Digiglio and excellent defense from Magnus DuBois and Lucky Bell kept them in it. Before long the Force’s scoring champ, Roth Westphal scored another two goals.

It was a hat trick for Roth and the lead for the Force! It wasn’t for long though. Even with Force goalie, and birthday boy George Stubbs playing his usual solid game in the net, the LaGrange boys were able to knock in the tying goal before time ran out. At the end it was a 3-3 tie and the Force left the field all smiles, knowing each and every one of them played with such heart.

Philipstown Defeats Shrub Oak

On Sept. 24, the Boys U14 Arsenal matched up against Shrub Oak Arsenal. Philipstown opened the scoring when striker Colin August dribbled through the Shrub Oak defense and blasted the ball past the keeper. August kept the pressure on when he won the ball at midfield and sent a beauty of a through pass to teammate Evan Maasik. Maasik sprinted past his defender and found the back of the Shrub Oak net to increase the lead to 2-0. Shrub Oak came back strong and tied the game late in the half but Philipstown never let up the pressure.

Colin August was taken down in the goal box and he put away his penalty kick to make it 3-2. At the end of the half, another Shrub Oak foul resulted in a direct kick that Philipstown’s Jasper Drake sent over the Shrub Oak wall and out of reach of the keeper, bringing the score at the half to Philipstown 4, Shrub Oak 2.

The second half saw Philipstown fighting to maintain possession against the strong Shrub Oak team. Finding themselves once again in Shrub Oak territory, Philipstown’s Ryan Eng-Wong took a masterful corner kick that Evan Maasik volleyed into the back of the goal. Shrub Oak came right back, scoring their third goal of the game. August continued his display of quality attacking when he again dribbled past his defender and scored his third goal of the day for the hat trick. Shrub Oak, unwilling to give up, answered with a fourth goal from their speedy attackers.

Philipstown responded with a seventh goal when Maasik dribbled to the end line and sent a beautiful cross in to the middle that was one-touched by teammate, Chase Mayer on the far post. At the final whistle, Philipstown had bested Shrub Oak in the battle of the Arsenal teams by a score of 7-4 and is undefeated this season.

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Articles attributed to "staff" are written by the editor or a senior editor. This is typically because they are brief items based on a single source, such as a press release, or there are multiple contributors, such as a collection of photos.