West Hartford’s Conard and Hall girls soccer teams had their first meeting of the season Monday night at Conard’s McKee Stadium.

Sports reporting is sponsored by Keating Agency Insurance

By Paul Palmer

Hall and Conard took on more than each other in Monday’s girls soccer match-up. Mother Nature was also one of the participants as the rain that had fallen since Friday continued, as did the wind, to create a slick surface for the teams to play on.

In the end, the Class L No. 3 Red Wolves and the No. 12 Titans tied at zero. The game moved Conard to 5-0-2 and Hall to 4-1-2 on the season.

“I was thrilled with our performance,” said Hall coach Scott Ferguson. “I don’t know how we didn’t score.” Hall was coming in off what Ferguson felt was a disastrous effort in a 1-1 tie with Enfield, following what he called a flat performance in a win over Northwest Catholic. “We challenged them (the players) to let us know who they are as a team,” he said.

On the other side, coach PJ Louis is fielding one of his stronger teams over the last few year years and was proud of how they played vs. the Titans. “We talked about matching the effort and energy of Hall and I am really proud of our effort tonight,” he said.

The match was played in a steady drizzle that was pushed by a nearly constant wind. Hall had the best of the opening minutes, launching promising crosses from the left and the right sides, but the defense of the Red Wolves held steady. On the few chances Conard had in transition, Hall freshman Grace Williams was strong on the ball, breaking up several rushes. Goalie Evelyn Black was solid in net again for Conard, seeing lots of early shots but having a steady game with a wet ball and turf to contend with.

With just over 30 minutes gone the best offensive chance came for Hall off the foot of Kyra Baun. The forward was dominant in possession and equally dangerous with her crosses all match. This time her 30-yard shot deflected off a Conard defender, forcing Black to go full stretch to her left to push the ball wide.

After a scoreless first half, Conard came out stronger to start the final 40 minutes and had its most dangerous chance 7:30 in. Grace Williams had a great run off a through ball, but was cut off by Maya Reilly coming across from the left side and displacing the ball.

The Titans took over a large part of the rest of the game with Baun leading the charge. In all she had eight second-half corner kicks and the placement on each was near perfection. “I’ve said it before, Kyra is one of the best players in the state and one of the top one or two we will play all season,” said Louis. One try was headed just wide off a corner; another fell to the feet of Zoe Buffat who saw her deflection go high over the crossbar.

At one point Hall had four consecutive corners as Conard’s defense hung tough. One of them went just past the far post, and another clanged off the crossbar. “Conard defended the corners with passion,” said Ferguson. “I have to give them credit for how they defended. It  would have felt great to put one or two of those in the net and I do not want us to lose sight of that,” Ferguson added.

When she wasn’t dropping in dangerous corners, Baun was trying to work the sidelines for crosses and got off a good try on goal with 9:39 to go. She dribbled from left to right trying to create space for a shot while being hounded by the Conard defense. She found a small window and let fly a shot that went back against the flow. It went just high and wide past the far post.

“The last 40 minutes we defended and worked strong. The team stay more organized and I felt the back line played solid,” said Louis.

Hall is back in action on Friday when they travel to Bloomfield. Conard has a huge showdown with Simsbury on the road on Friday. Simsbury is 6-0-0 on the season and is ranked second in Class L.

Game notes

• The game was Conard’s fourth straight shutout.
• The Red Wolves have 6 shutouts on the season, having surrendered just one goal all year.
• Hall came into the game 3-0-1 in its last four following its only loss – a one goal affair to unbeaten, untied, Glastonbury.
• Monday’s game was the third clean sheet for goalie Annabelle Butterfield and the Hall defense.

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