Girl’s soccer took down Deptford 3-0 on Friday afternoon in the first round of the SJSCA Tourney.
“After winning the division (Liberty) yesterday, we just wanted to get out all the jitters and hype from that and play with the confidence we’ve had all season and move on in this tournament,” Fiona Flynn said.
#4 Cinnaminson will play #5 Haddonfield on Monday at home at 2pm in the second round.
“We wanted to put Deptford under a lot of pressure,” head coach Matt Digney said. “We want to make things uncomfortable for them. We did a good job. We were trying to do the right things.”
The Pirates (14-1-1) opened the scoring with 8:33 left in the first half when Flynn corralled a bouncing ball in the box and clanged it off the post for a 1-0 lead.
“Emma Karch had the ball and she kicked it overhead and it’s bouncing in the box,” Flynn said.
“No one’s going for it so I waited for the perfect moment. I didn’t think it was going in until it was actually in the back of the net.”
Cinnaminson added a second goal two minutes later off the foot of Hailey Gutowski.
“Deptford surprised me,” Digney said. “They were a better team than I expected. The second we got that goal, you could feel the wind go out of their sails. By the second half, it was a much different game.”
A 2-0 lead at the break put the Pirates in good position to play a game of possession in the second half.
The Pirates added a third and final goal with 13 minutes to play when Emma Karch scored her team-leading 12th goal.
The majority of the second half, save for two shots for the Spartans, was played in the Deptford (14-2-1) defensive zone.
The win was the 11th shutout of the season for Cinnaminson.
“It’s good,” Digney said. “I’ve always liked to coach defense. It’s tough because defense is not a one or two player thing.”
“It’s an eight, nine or 10 player thing. When you get all the girls doing the same thing, it’s pretty fun to watch. Lately, a few games, we’ve been leaking a little bit, but we learn from them and move forward.”
This was the first appearance for the Spartans in the SJSCA Tournament. They entered as the 13-seed.
The second round of the SJSCA will be played on Monday at 2pm at Cinnaminson against Haddonfield.
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