The Open A Kildare team kicked off their Knockout Soccer campaign with round robin games against Parafield Gardens and The Avenues, played at Avenues College.
After a sluggish start against Parafield Gardens, Alana Lishmund capitalised on a poor clearance from the opposition, scoring with a fine left footed strike from outside the penalty area to put Kildare ahead 1-0. Later in the half, some good defensive scrambling by Mia Larkin and Hayley Kinloch in goals, helped the team maintain their advantage. Just before half time, Nina Barnden cooly finished off some earlier good work by Macaela Mazzarolo to give Kildare a 2-0 lead at the break.
In the 2nd half, the team started well, but after spurning some early opportunities, found their lead cut back to 2-1 after Parafield Gardens punished our inability to clear the ball from danger. Macaela Mazzarolo then had a golden opportunity to hit straight back from the kickoff, but couldn’t manage to beat the keeper with her strike. Soon after, a fantastic through ball from Darcy Taylor split open the Gardens defence and Natarsha Makris expertly slotted the ball into the net to restore Kildare’s 2 goal advantage and bring the final score to 3-1.
The 2nd game against a well organised Avenues side presented a much tougher test, with the winner of this game progressing to the next round. Despite dominating the majority of the first half, thanks to some scintillating play from Monique Mazzarolo, Kildare was unable to reflect this dominance on the scoreboard. The players kept up the pressure in the 2nd half and were rewarded when a fine cross from Cristina Vottari was met at the back post by Monique Mazzarolo to break the deadlock and put Kildare ahead. In the closing minutes, despite some nervy moments, the defence stood firm with great efforts from Ella Witcher, Sophia Keys, Eliza Lord and Alana Lishmund to protect our lead and seal the victory.
Kildare will now play an undefeated Pembroke in the next round of the Knockout competition in another challenging fixture for the players and one we are sure they will be equal to.
Brett Selga
Coach
