The Conard girls soccer team hosted Windsor on Tuesday night in West Hartford.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

The Conard girls soccer team stayed hot with a 6-0 lopsided win over Windsor on Tuesday night.

The Red Wolves offense delivered through balls in batches, easily breaking down the backline of Windsor and creating breakaways by the bundle. In fact, the 5-0 lead at halftime could have been twice that number if not for some missed opportunities by Conard and some strong goaltending by goalie Olivia Rosario.

The Red Wolves scored first with Sydney Wilcox converting off a pass from speedy forward Alice Araya. The lead was nearly increased several times but Conard missed opportunities alone in front of the net, or Rosario was there to make a save any way she could.

Windsor rarely crossed midfield and did not record a scoring chance the entire first half. Conard used its passing skills to control the offense and worked the through passes over and over. Several times the Red Wolves were a little too eager, however, and were called for offsides.

The unbeaten Red Wolves finally put together a stretch of play starting about the 26th minute of the half that would end with four more goals being scored. Madelyn Rogers struck first when she followed up Wilcox’s opportunity. Rosario made the first save on the breakaway, but Rogers had no one around her and no one between her and the back of the net, and she did not miss to make it 2-0.

Just under three and a half minutes later, Wilcox picked up her second of the half when she ran onto a through ball and came in all alone on Rosario. The senior goalie managed to deflect the shot with her right foot, but it sailed into the net.

It was 4-0 with 3:20 to play when Audrey Corn raced in alone on Rosario and hit the back of the net with her shot, and with just :18 to play Asha Comiso cooly drilled her breakaway chance into the upper right side of the net to end the first half scoring.

“We have a great balance and our seniors set the example by working hard,” said head coach PJ Louis.

In the first half Conard had 15 shots on goal, and Wilcox had two goals and one assist. Courtney McPhee, Araya, and Jacqueline Capone picked up the other assists. The lopsided score allowed Louis to bring in substitutes at the half and throughout the rest of the game.

Despite the change in players, Conard kept up the possession domination and once again had numerous chances to score. To Windsor’s credit, they never gave up and continued to try and generate offense, eventually earning one corner and one shot on goal.

With a little over 11 minutes to play, Namiah Heller made it an even half dozen goals with determination, speed, and hustle. With her head down, she raced past a defender and blasted a shot at a charging Rosario. The ball hit the goalie in the legs but rolled through toward the goal. Heller kept running, catching up with the rolling ball and tapped it into the net.

Conard welcomed the opportunity to play players that are normally on the JV squad and give many of the varsity players a chance to rest. The Red Wolves have three more games over the next six days – a Friday game with Platt, a Saturday showdown with 4-0-1 Hall, and a Monday game with 4-2 Bristol Eastern. As the schedule gets tougher for the Red Wolves, Louis knows the key is to keep taking it one day at a time and try to get better in every practice and every game.

“We try to find one or two things each day to work on,” the second-year head coach said. “Today we went in focusing on working together.”

The roster features six seniors, and Louis said many of the returning players came into the season ready to go, carrying over the lessons learned last year and improving on them with hard work.

“We started with a higher bar this year,” said the head coach. “I knew we were capable of playing like this, because we had a big group that played together all summer so we did not have to take that extra week to build up.”

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