Tuesday marked a week since eventual ISAL champion Brooklyn Friends had eliminated LREI from this year’s playoffs.  With the 2014 season winding down it was a week filled with rest, recuperation, and preparation for the last game of the season.  The playoff elimination was especially hard on the team given the fantastic season they had put together leading up to it.  After allowing only 8 goals in the 10 prior games, they allowed four to dominant BFS striker Halima Matthews, including her 100^th goal of her young high school career, despite playing one of their better games of the year.  It was a game that the team could take positives from, but one in which left a sense of disappointment of the “what-could-have-been” variety.

 

But defeat is a part of competition the same as it is a part of our every day.  And the Knights are no different.  They are, as their style of play, work rate and results this season have shown, as resilient and determined as a squad can be.  And this was the side of them on display as they closed out their season with a final home appearance at Pier 40 vs Grace Church, a side they have not faced in any of the last four seasons since the program gained full varsity status. 

 

The early goings were slightly rough.  The absence of senior Maxine Guttmann, a regular starter at right back, and senior captain Finley Martin, who has been a starter and the lynchpin in the LREI midfield for the last four years, meant that there was some shuffling to be done in the line up.  Sophomores Jordana Castro and Lutfah Subair split time at right back, both doing a good job of marking Grace forwards tightly and combining well with the midfield.  Sophomore Lucy Tamarkin, regularly deployed on the right of midfield, slid into the #10 role behind the strikers in what could possibly be a preview of the future of the position for the Knights.  She found space to come by in short supply in the first minutes, but her continual determination to get on the ball and to feed the strikers saw her finish with an assist and a large hand in the lead up to the first goal.  It was her shot, followed by pressure on the rebound from senior striker Diandra Adu-Kyei that forced the Grace defense into an own goal. 

 

Minutes later senior Ally Klemer, starting on the left of midfield, would feed freshman striker Rachel Morrow for the game’s second, and her first of two on the day.  All three of the first half goals came from continual pressure in the middle and attacking thirds of the field for LREI.  The backline, lead by senior captain Hazel Hutchins, settled into the game and dominated the opposition forwards.  Junior goalkeeper Cara Eagan, filling in for Sara Caplan who picked up a season-ending thigh injury in the playoff game, had little to nothing to do in the first half, but played aggressively on the few through balls that Grace were able to muster. 

 

The second half saw a few more attacking opportunities for Grace as they tried to work back into the game.  Hutchins was unfortunate to draw a penalty when a ball bounced unexpectedly off the turf into her hand just inside the line of the LREI 18 yard box.  But Eagan was equal to the task, saving the resulting kick, and then following up seconds later with another good save. 

 

Not to be out done, the GC keeper made several good stops of her own as Klemer and senior forward Cara Colasanti applied repeated pressure off of the through service coming from the midfield.  As the game wore on the difference in possession showed though, and senior midfielder Ana Maroto, the base of the LREI midfield and metronome that made the team tick all season long, combined brilliantly with her teammates on numerous occasions after sniffing out attacks.  Junior midfielder Amelia Pinney and defender Maya Pacheco-Berger combined to shut down the left side of the field and provide a constant threat.  They have been a fantastic combo for the team all year, and this was one of the best shifts the two of them have put in.

 

The final goal came off the foot of Ally Klemer, racing onto a through ball provided by Morrow just under ten minutes from time. 

 

LREI finish the season with a record of 9-3, having scored 33 goals, with 12 against, in 12 games.  They have posted 7 shut outs this season while scoring in 11 straight games.  All of these are team records.  While they are graduating a tremendous core of players, it can categorically be stated that the example set is one that the next team can build on, and that the quality in the roster makes 2015 another exciting prospect for the growing program.