Lady Cats Streak Ends Last Week
Danville’s Taylor Carson (right) dribbles the ball up the field followed by Isabelle Gouin (left) of Hazen Union during action, October 13, in Danville. The Bears won 2-0.
by Ken Brown
SWANTON – The Hazen Union girls’ soccer team’s four match winning streak came to an end last week as the offense sputtered in a trio of losses to Missisquoi Valley (MVU), Danville-Twinfield-Cabot (CCSU), and Paine Mountain.
Addyson Longway scored the lone goal of the match to help Missisquoi Valley grind out a 1-0 home win over the Lady Cats last Wednesday. The two teams battled to a scoreless draw for the first 60 minutes until Lilliana Fournier chipped a deep ball into the back third and Longway outraced the Lady Cat backline for the game-winner.
Ella Renaud continued her strong play for Hazen, making six stops in the loss. Shanneal Unwin made five saves for the Lady Thunderbirds to record her fourth shutout of the season. MVU improved to 7-4-1 in the Division II standings.
Hazel Abetti and Ida Astick scored a goal apiece on Friday as CCSU avenged a loss to the Lady Cats from two weeks ago with an impressive 2-0 win at home.
Leah Klark was outstanding for the Lady Bears, turning away 13 shots to earn her second shutout of the season.
Renaud made six saves in the loss for Hazen. Danville-Twinfield-Cabot is in the inaugural season of their CCSU cooperative and are starting to play their best soccer of the season as they climb up the Division III standings.
Alexis Spencer scored the game-winner with three minutes left in regulation as Paine Mountain erased a one-goal deficit to outlast Hazen 2-1 on the road over the weekend for their fourth straight win.
Isabelle Gouin broke the scoring drought for the Lady Cats with eight minutes left in the first half, finishing a feed from freshman Thompson for a one goal advantage heading into the break. It was the team leading seventh goal of the season for the talented sophomore striker.
Emma Korrow found the equalizer for Paine Mountain midway through the second half with a perfectly placed corner kick. Korrow fed Spencer outside the box with time running down and Spencer pulled the trigger from long range for the game-winner.
Renaud made seven stops for Hazen in the loss. Olivia Boyd recorded eight saves for Paine Mountain as they improved to 9-2 on the season.
“It was our third game of the week and after a pair of hard-fought defeats, I thought we started this match with more passion. Taylor did a good job of beating two of their defenders and served a dangerous ball in the box that Isabelle made a nice touch on to give us an early lead. The girls did a good job of keeping the pressure up, but we were unable to finish again before the half. Both teams started strong and fought hard in a back-and-forth match in the second half, but Paine Mountain were the ones who found their way to the finish line. We’ll look to dig ourselves out of a tough week and try to secure a home playoff match,” said head coach Harry Besett.
The Lady Cats dropped from fourth to seventh in the current Division IV standings and will more than likely need to knock off a Division III opponent this week to secure a home playoff match in the upcoming tournament. Hazen traveled to Oxbow on Tuesday and will host high-powered BFA-Fairfax on Friday as they celebrate Senior Night.
