By Ted Waddell
JEFFERSONVILLE — October 23, 2001 – The Sullivan West Lady Bulldogs girls’ varsity soccer team seems to have a recipe for success: take four of last year’s starters from the Jeffersonville-Youngsville campus, add five from Delaware Valley and stir in four from Narrowsburg, and you have squad that, as of Friday’s 5-1 win over Chapel Field, had racked up a 4-2 OCIAA Division V mark and a 11-4 overall record in the 2001 season.
In Friday’s non-league match against the Lady Hambletonians of Chapel Field (6-9), the home team booters carried a 4-0 lead into the halftime break, before going on to victory.
At 39:00 in the first half, Danielle Peters scored for the Lady Bulldogs after she ran through a couple of defenders and put a nice ball into the net from the near post from about 14 yards out.
Shelisa Duquette played a ball to Karen Terry in the midfield, who then spied Megan Moran working an overlapping run out on the right flank.
Terry one-timed the ball to Moran, and after a couple of touches, she played the ball to Aileen Semenetz for a score at 28:00.
At 19:00, Katrina Meyer took a ball deep on the flank and crossed it to Danielle Peters who got her foot into it and past Lady Hambletonian goalkeeper Julie Schaper for a 3-0 SW lead.
At 9:00, Danielle Peters crossed a ball to Rebecca Steele, who scored to make it a 4-0 match at the half in favor of the SW booters.
With the clock at 29:00 in the second frame, Michelle Peters took a long throw from the sidelines and played the ball off to Danielle Peters, who then beat Schaper from about 15 yards out on the right side of the goal.
At 13:00 remaining in the game, the Lady Hambletonians’ Amanda Millham lofted a hard shot over the head on the SW keeper to make it a 5-1 match. Millham’s goal, from about 25 yards out, was unassisted.
Stats: shots on goal (SW 25, Chapel Field 8), corner kicks (SW 6, Chapel Field 2), keeper saves (Tiffany Hauser one and Amanda Patterson three for SW, 11 for Schaper).
According to Chapel Field coach Daniel Spanjer, his team took to the field with a slight disadvantage due to their goalkeeper being sidelined with a back injury.
SW was also without its normal starting goalie, as Erin Bose was sidelined with a concussion she suffered during the Lady Bulldogs’ game against Tuxedo earlier in the week.
“Defensively, we were able to keep them fairly contained,” said Mike Mahoney, coach of the SW girls’ varsity soccer team. “Jennifer Ackermann, Shelisa Duquette and Kayla Peters did a good job at keeping their strikers contained, and stopping any type of attack when they did get through.”
“Aileen Semenetz also played well,” he added. “She is learning to have greater movement off the ball with diagonal and lateral runs.”
Mahoney said that at the start of the match, he told the team to approach every remaining game of the regular season – they play three games this week – until the upcoming sectionals with the idea of playing a full 80 minutes.
Asked about the season so far, Mike Mahoney replied, “It’s really come together. The kids are working hard. . . the whole approach (playing as a team comprised of booters from three campuses) has been new to a lot of the kids, but they responded well and are learning and growing.”
“The kids have really grabbed onto everything we put out there,” he said of the advice given to the Lady Bulldogs by the varsity coaching staff.
That staff includes Mahoney and assistants Lenny Merit and Zee Zee Ziolkowski.