Two longtime rivals square off on the pitch on Monday afternoon, as Harrison and Rye’s girls soccer teams squared off in an early-season test for both highly-touted clubs. And if fans thought the two squads were evenly-matched beforehand, nothing was done to disabuse them of that notion as they battled over 80 minutes to a hard-fought scoreless draw.
Coming into the matchup, both teams knew they would be in for a barnburner, with the Huskies firmly in position as a team on the rise and the Garnets coming into the year off a trip to the Class A state finals.
“We knew they were a very technical team, and they play very well out of the back,” said Harrison coach Jon-Erik Zappala. “So we were just looking at claiming the middle third and playing a tough, defensive game, and we got that.”
For both the Garnets and Huskies, good goalkeeping was the theme of the day, as Harrison’s Alexa Lacatanna stopped all 15 shots she faced, while Rye’s Tessa Labovitz had nine saves. Zappala credited Lacatanna—making her return to the program this year—for keeping the Garnets off the board with an inspired performance.”
“Alexa had a terrific game, both goalies were tremendous ,” said Zappala. “Rye was right down there and she turned them away and that was great to see.”
Rye coach Rich Savage noted that the key to stopping the Huskies’ offense centered around stopping standout scorer Ingrid Murphy, something Rye accomplished by aggressively minding Murphy with a number of players led by center back Clare Nemsick, who will play alongside Murphy next year at Bucknell University.
“We wanted to make sure that if Clare wasn’t on her, we had someone on her, fronting her at the right time,” said Savage. “We know [Murphy] can create something from nothing; we had to be aware of where she was on the field at all times and also be aware of where Cara Acocella was as well.”
Rye and Harrison will meet again on Oct. 7 in a game that will see how far these teams have come from their mid-September forms. For Harrison, the keys to success include continuing the fluid play that has lifted them to a 4-0-1 record at this point. For the Garnets (1-0-3)—who have been without key pieces during this early-season stretch—the goal is simply to begin converting on the offensive end.
“We had some opportunities, we couldn’t find the net, but the good thing is we aren’t giving up goals,” said Savage. “We know that anyone on this team can score, we just have to start.”
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