By Rob Potter
LIBERTY — October 19, 2001 – In the first half of Tuesday’s OCIAA Division IV girls’ soccer game, host Liberty held the Marlboro offense relatively in check.
The visitors managed only one goal in the half, as Jessica Congemi scored at the 25:00 mark.
Unfortunately for the Lady Indians, Congemi was not done scoring with that goal.
Congemi notched three more goals in the second half to lead Marlboro (5-6-2, 5-2 Division IV) to a 5-0 win over Liberty (0-15, 0-7 Division IV).
After teammate Melissa Barron scored a goal two minutes into the second half, Congemi, a speedy striker, took over. Despite the fact that the Liberty defense remained focused on her, she scored three unassisted goals on a variety of shots.
“She’s just a really good player,” Liberty coach John Lennon said of Congemi, who helped Marlboro amass a 18-6 shot advantage.
Perhaps Liberty’s best chance to avoid the shutout came with about 17 minutes left in the match. Lady Indian Michelle Olson had the control of the ball about 10 yards from the net and saw that Marlboro goalkeeper Meghan Fescoe was out of position.
Olson crossed the ball to the other side of the net where a pair of her teammates were trying to get a step on the Marlboro defenders. But when the ball reached her teammates, Fescoe was back in position and one of the Marlboro defenders was able to kick the ball away from the goal cage.
Fescoe was credited with six saves in the contest, while Liberty goalie Nicole Daurio stopped 12 shots.
While his team definately finished well, Marlboro coach Omar Elizondo was a bit concerned with how his squad began the match.
“We were a little bit slow,” Elizondo said. “We’ve done that in a few matches lately, we’re not sharp for the first 25 or 30 minutes. We have a young team and they need to learn how to play for 80 minutes.”
Despite the lopsided loss that kept his team searching for its first win of the season, Lennon was happy with his team’s performance.
“Our girls played really well,” he said. “I was happy with the way we were able to control the ball and our passing. This was probably our most positive game so far.”