CHICOPEE — The biggest issue for the Northampton girls soccer team this season has been consistency.
“We have times that we are brilliant at finding through balls and having good runs,” Blue Devils coach Vanessa Butynski said. “Our biggest thing is that we do that consistently. It’s about moving forward with it.”
Northampton had moments against Chicopee Comp on Monday night where the team moved the ball fluidly and made good runs down the wing, but the team also had moments of sloppy play with turnovers and poor first touches. The Colts took advantage of these mistakes to defeat the Blue Devils, 3-0.
“Today we didn’t do a very good job of finding feet and possessing the ball,” Butynski said. “A lot of the time we were giving the ball to them. … They were playing a lot of one-two touches, kicking balls over, which they were able to get in at. That hurt us. We weren’t able to recover.”
Northampton (1-7-2, 1-3-1 Kurty-Fielding) goalkeeper Sydney Lewandowski kept Chicopee Comp’s first shot out of goal with 35 minutes left in the first half. A Colts forward brought the ball down the right side and attempted to curl a shot into the top-left corner. Lewandowski leaped into the air and batted the ball away with her right hand.
The senior captain finished the game with seven saves.
“Syd is a top goalkeeper in this league,” Butynski said. “She keeps us in games … because she is making those saves, people expect her to make them. It’s a double edged sword. She has been the rock of our defense. … Hopefully we can build with that through the back four to find the back of the net.”
The Colts (2-8-1, 1-4 Kurty-Fielding) scored their first goal with 24 minutes to go in the first half when Lindsey Reidy ran down the right side and curled a shot into the net inside the far post.
Chicopee Comp scored again seven minutes later when Reidy brought the ball down the right side and sent a cross into the box toward Jarissa Rosario. She corralled the ball and sent a shot in low past the outstretched hand of Lewandowski.
Northampton’s best scoring opportunity came with seven minutes left in the first half when Caroline Tanner sent a hard, low shot on net toward the bottom-left corner from the right side, but the shot was punched away by Colts goalkeeper Ava Baron for a corner.
The Blue Devils had opportunities on the counter attack in the first half, but could not keep the ball close to their feet on the break and had several giveaways due to physical, timely challenges from the Colts.
“Right now our training needs to be harder,” Butynski said. “I’m seeing that when we come to games, the speed is a lot different than our training sessions. We aren’t pressuring as hard and not playing one-two touches as quickly as we need to. We need to focus on that speed of play these next couple of games.”
Lila Kirley made a goal line clearance in the final minute of the first half to keep the score at 2-0 moving into the second half.
Chicopee Comp’s Taryn Langlois scored off a corner with a hard shot in close off the cross bar with 27 minutes to go in the second half to up the Colts’ lead.
The Blue Devils have scored nine goals through 10 games and have been shutout five times this season.
“That has been our biggest thing. … We are having a difficult time finding the back of the net,” Butynski said. “We can’t win if we can’t score goals, but we are working hard. The bounces aren’t going our way this year, but that is life. We are going to keep working and plug away.”