As junior Yarden Wilkenfeld breaks away from her defender for a goal in her first soccer game of the season, her teammates celebrate as the Lions take a 3-0 lead. This goal would eventually help the Lions crush the Washington Waldorf Red Tailed Hawks on Sept. 15, in a 8-3 victory.
Within the first five minutes of the home game, the Lions got on the scoreboard after the Hawks defender committed a hand ball, resulting in a penalty kick. Junior Caroline Salz took the kick and began the scoring run with her goal.
Throughout the first half, the Lions maintained a high pressure defense which resulted in many shot opportunities, through stolen passes and breakaways. Freshman Mia New-Schneider was able to score the Lion’s second goal, taking a 2-0 lead. Freshman Miri Silverman credits the fluid offense to strong communication.
“I feel like communication is the main component towards a strong offense,” Silverman said. “If you’re not communicating, then more people go to the ball and we wouldn’t have scored as many goals.”
The Lions also deflected many of Waldorf’s passes and attacks partly due to the defense of both freshman Eden Segal-Geetter and sophomore Selma Teichman. Coach Paul Simonetti likes to put a huge emphasis and focus on a strong defense, which he believes leads to more offensive opportunities.
“We pride ourselves in playing very tough defensively,” Simonetti said. “…We always have two or three of our best players in the defensive zone because it is so critically important to have good defense in the game.”
Wilkenfeld provided energy on offense, through her quickness, which resulted in a goal, extending the lead to 3-0. However, one of Waldorf’s offensive players stormed down the field to break their scoreless performance and scored a lightly defended goal.
After a Waldorf injury, the Red Tailed Hawks needed to play with one less player, because they didn’t have enough reserves for a substitution. This remained the case until the middle of the second half.
After halftime, the game went back and forth with slow offense for each team. Waldorf’s goalkeeper made many saves to hold off the Lions. Eventually, captain and senior Sammi Krantz scored a goal that was placed right above the goalkeeper and off the crossbar, making the match 4-1.
On a defensive play for the Lions, Segal Geeter injured her wrist and exited the game. Captain and senior Tali Loeffler was also out of the game due to a concussion.
The Lions continued to apply pressure on offense. Salz and junior Eliana Abrams were able to get many shot opportunities, but couldn’t convert.
“Definitely towards the end of the game, when we were all tired and it was kind of a long game, we all rallied, played hard, made a lot of good passes,” Krantz said. “We were playing smart and our passing looked really good today.”
After more shot attempts by the Lions, a Waldorf player was able to score another goal for the Red Tailed Hawks, her second of the match. But within a few possessions, Silverman was able to respond with a goal, making it 5-2.
Captain and senior Carrine Shemesh continued the streak with her first goal in the game, extending the lead to 6-2. Immediately after, Abrams floated the ball above the goalkeeper into the net and junior Emunah Simkovich scored resulting in a final score of 8-2.
Despite a victory for the Lions, Simonetti believes the Lions can learn from this game and improve their overall performance.
“We’ve got to learn to keep the pressure on in the offensive zone,” Simonetti said. “We know where each other are but the more they’re out there in the field together, the more those things start to become more and more natural for them.”
The Lions will face the Washington International School (WIS) on Wednesday, Sept. 17. Krantz is looking forward to using their momentum from the win to propel them against WIS.
“We’re playing a hard team on Wednesday so it’s helpful to be going into that game with this victory and knowing that we all have each other’s backs,” Krantz said.
