By Rob Potter
ROSCOE — October 25, 2002 – Diana Failla scored two goals to help Roscoe post a 3-0 victory over visiting Livingston Manor Wednesday in an OCIAA Division VII girls’ soccer match.
Teammate Rosie Miesner assisted Failla on both of those goals as Roscoe recorded its second victory of the season.
All three of the Lady Blue Devil goals came in the second half – when players, coaches, officials and fans all struggled to keep warm as the sun dipped below a nearby hill.
In the evenly-played first half of the match, both teams had opportunities to score. Roscoe (2-12-1, 2-4-1 OCIAA) had five shots on goal in the opening 40 minutes of play, while Manor (3-10, 1-4 OCIAA) sent six shots towards the opposing goal.
Roscoe’s Jennifer Lawrence scored the first goal of the match nearly six minutes into the second half. She sent a long shot just to the left of Lady Wildcat goalie Jennifer Irwin and into the corner of the net.
Just two minutes and nine seconds later, Failla took a pass from Miesner and scored on a low shot to make it 2-0.
Failla’s second goal occurred with 18:51 remaining in the contest. Irwin seemed to momentarily get her hands on the low shot, but it slid away from her and into the net.
Irwin made eight saves in the match, as did Lady Blue Devil goalie Danielle Sullivan.
Manor’s best chance to score may have been late in the first half. With five seconds left on the clock, Tegan Kern took a shot a few yards outside of the Roscoe net. But the ball sailed wide right of the goal.
Following the match, both Roscoe Coach Cliff Anderson and Manor Coach Shirlee Davis noted that injuries to key players had affected their teams virtually the entire season.
Anderson said that he lost four starting players to injuries in an early season match. One is still out, another returned to the line-up briefly and the the other two players only recently began practicing and playing in matches.
“I’m sorry that the girls weren’t able to have everyone back and playing together with the same line-up,” Anderson said. “It seems like they never got an even break along the way. But they kept competing.”
Davis explained that Kern was the Lady Wildcats’ leading scorer in 2001 season with 17 goals. But Kern missed matches due to injury and a handful of other injured Manor players were watching, rather than playing in, Wednesday’s match. “This season has been frustrating,” Davis said. “This team has a lot of seniors and had a lot of potential.”
Further complicating things for the Lady Wildcats were the ongoing field renovations at Livingston Manor Central School. Due to that fact, the team has played all of its matches to date on the opposing school’s field.
“I’ve been coaching for 15 years and don’t wish traveling to every game on anyone,” Davis commented.
On a positive note, however, Davis added that the Lady Wildcats have been recognized as a Scholar Athlete team. The squad was also so honored last autumn.