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Partly Cloudy Kennedy racks up goals, wins
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Senior captain Danielle Roberts helps control the flow of Kennedy's offense.
Jeff Wilson/Herald
Take a quick glance at the box scores for Kennedy's girls' soccer team and a different sport immediately comes to mind: softball. The way the Lady Cougars (5-3 overall, 5-2 in Conference IV) are scoring goals—they're averaging 5.3 per game over the last four, it sure doesn't seem like it's soccer they're playing.
Wheatley became the latest opponent to try and contain the up-tempo style Kennedy's employing. The Lady Cougars, led by junior forward Morgan Kitton's two goals, hustled their way to a 5-1 victory on Oct. 6. "We have a lot of speed, which has been a help," first-year coach Janine Bizelia said. "We're playing [the ball] in space and running into it. The girls are getting used to it."
Kitton's game, centered around 80 minutes of hustle, is perfectly suited to the fast-paced system. And while she's developed into the team’s top offensive weapon, senior forward Alyssa McCormick is starting to show that defenses have to focus their efforts on more than just one player. She scored once in the win over Wheatley and had three in a 6-4 loss to first-place North Shore on Oct. 2. Primarily working as a distributor for the first few games, McCormick, who plays both forward and midfield, is starting to find the back of the goal.
Junior Dani Liotta, who's natural position is forward, often logs most of her action as an outside back. However, Bizelia hasn't been timid in adjusting the lineup and has moved Liotta up front for stretches. Senior captain Danielle Roberts, a center-midfielder, helps control the flow of the offense and has also been a consistent contributor in the scoring department with seven goals.
Senior goalkeeper Katie Marcy, the team's other captain, is a vocal leader who also has a keen sense for getting the rest of the defense into position. The Lady Cougars are running a zone defense, meaning one-on-one marking is all but nonexistent. Instead, the four defenders play specific areas of the field. Bizelia uses a five-player rotation that includes juniors Kayleigh Grieser, Stacey Wolfson and Allie Keller, along with Liotta and sophomore Danielle Gillman.
"Most teams don't play it; it's safer to play the stopper and sweeper," Bizelia said. "But if [the girls] play in college, that's what they'll play. It was a good time to incorporate it into the team. They wanted to do it, and they're picking it up."
Kennedy, battling North Shore and Seaford for first place in Conference IV, closes out the regular season with three games in five days, beginning with a visit from Clarke on Monday at 4:45 p.m.
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