Wahconah Girls Blank Brattleboro, Improve to .500
DALTON, Mass. -- The Wahconah girls soccer team Saturday scored three times in a seven-minute span en route to a dominating 3-0 victory over Brattleboro, Vt.
Olivia Gamberoni had a goal and an assist, and Wahconah outshot the Colonels by a margin of 20-2 in improving to 4-4 this season.
“One of the things we’ve been working on is sequencing the ball -- some 5-yard passes, some deep into the corner, some crossing and crashing, which seems to be one of the areas where we need to improve,” Wahconah coach Meghan Smith said. “And they did that.
“We’ve had a busy week this week, and they came out with some fire, which I was really excited for.”
The game-winning goal came in the 22nd minute on a play that started with Gamberoni winning a one-on-one battle on the left wing. She centered the ball to Emma Belcher, who finished from about 22 yards out to make it a 1-0 game.
Four minutes later, Gamberoni converted an assist from Norah Esko to double Wahconah’s lead.
In the 29th minute, Claire Naef capped the scoring.
That play started when Gamberoni drew a foul high on the left wing. Quinn Walton took the ensuing free kick and sent the ball into the 18, where it deflected off a Brattleboro defender to Naef, who finished for her first goal of the season.
After outshooting Brattleboro, 9-2, in the first 40 minutes, Wahconah established even greater control of the play after half-time.
Senior Jenna Powers was outstanding for the Colonels, stopping 17 shots, including a couple of point-blank tries by Naef and Gamberoni a minute apart in the middle of the half.
It was not until the 60-minute mark that Brattleboro crossed midfield for the first time in the second half. And on its only foray into the final third, with about six minutes left, Wahconah keeper Eva Eberwein (two saves) as able to intercept a cross from the right wing to stay out of danger.
Wahconah takes its first two-game winning streak of the season into Monday’s game at Pittsfield, when Smith’s team will look to get over the .500 mark for the first time this fall.
Six months removed from the “Fall 2” run to an undefeated Berkshire County North Division title, Wahconah is playing its first season in the PVIAC’s Kurty/Fielding League and adjusting to life without some key contributors who graduated last spring.
Smith said Saturday that she likes how this year’s squad is coming together.
“They’re doing a great job,” she said. “I think, with eight games in, we’re getting it. They’re figuring it out. We’re breaking a lot of things down, and we’re really encouraging talking. I think when they do communicate, everything is so much better.
“We heard talking today. We heard them saying, ‘Where’s the outside mid? Where’s the center mid? Where’s the 2? Where’s the 1?’ That was nice from today.
“They’re rising to the occasion. Every game we get better, every practice we get better.”