A hard-fought battle between Holy Child and Rye Country Day School ended in a 1-1 tie October 15.

 

By Melanie Cane

A hard-fought battle between Holy Child and Rye Country Day School ended in a 1-1 tie October 15. The Wildcats hosted the Gryphons in this evenly matched game that went scoreless for the first half.

A minute into the second half, Wildcat Taylor Regan kicked a through ball to Sophia Wilmer from close to the 18, and Wilmer took a touch and shot it in. A few minutes later, Gryphons’ senior Captain Kathleen Daly scored on a pass from co-Captain Margaret Brady. Daly, who was being double and triple teamed throughout the game, scored on a left footer across the net into the upper 90 from 17 yards out.

After Daly evened the score, Rye Country Day stepped up their intensity and created three great scoring opportunities on a sequence of combination plays involving multiple players. The ball hit the crossbar twice and Holy Child goalie Maggie Ahern had a beautiful point-blank save off a rebound from inside the six.

The Wildcats dominated most of the half, with Liz Masteloni doing a good job of distributing the ball. The majority of Rye Country Day’s possessions were played down the right sideline where Gryphon Mairead Walsh stepped up her defensive game, blocking the ball or kicking it out of bounds.

Toward the end of the game, Holy Child ratcheted up the pressure and created several threats, but was unable to deliver. Sophia Kryza, just a freshman, was dangerous around the box in the second half with six shots that were either blocked or hit the post. In the last few minutes of the game, the Gryphons had a rehearsed free kick from outside the corner of the box that went just wide.

Both teams have been hobbled by injuries. The Wildcats were missing five players and the Gryphons three. Wildcat goalie CeCe Payne, who had two saves, lamented, “Because of all our injuries, we had no set offensive formation for much of the game. Our defense was fine, although we had a couple of slip-ups with late coverage.”

Holy Child Coach Beau Morki commended his team for playing a strong game, both offensively and defensively.

The Wildcats are 4-2-5 and the Gryphons are 4-3-5. Both teams have four games left to play before the NYSAIS tournament begins November 1.