Thunder Rumbles To Soccer Championship

The Newtown Thunder U13 girls’ soccer team, coached by Alixe Rose, won the third annual Fairfield Fall Annual Soccer Tournament this past weekend. The tourney hosted 160 teams in six age groups from 36 towns throughout New York and New England.

Newtown finished with a 3-0-1 record and won the second tiebreaker (goal differential) against Madison. Game highlights are as follows:

Newtown Thunder 1, Madison Tigers 1: Hailey Conrad scored on an assist from Jess Maturo. Meghan Doyle and Amanda Albanese shared goaltending duties. Ali Manfredi and Kendra Dunnigan were strong at midfield.

Newtown Thunder 2, Watertown Warriors 0: Doyle and Stef Carr combined in goal for the shutout (their first of three). Conrad and Maturo each netted goals. Defenders Emily Montoya and Grace Sandercox kept the Warrior offense in check.

Newtown Thunder 3, Wilton White 0: Conrad opened up the scoring off a nice pass from an aggressive Olivia Caplan. Conrad scored her fourth goal of the tourney, unassisted. Maturo later found the back of the net off a pass from Conrad. Claire Beiter and Julia Sughrue controlled the midfield, with Beiter showing some skilled dribbling as she consistently maneuvered past opponents. Mia Katsuleres had several nice centering passes as she rushed down the sideline.

Newtown Thunder 3, Darien White 0: Needing to win by at least three goals to capture the title, the Thunder came out firing, but could not get the ball past the talented Darien goalie. Conrad, Doyle, and Carr all had strong scoring opportunities turned away in the first half. Midway through the second half, Newtown had to be concerned about winning, let alone winning by at least three. However, then lighting (well, at least Thunder) struck. Doyle got things started when she sailed a perfect corner to the front of the goal that was knocked in by Maturo. Two minutes later, Maturo returned the favor setting up Doyle who blasted the second goal into the back of the net. Conrad appeared to get the third goal a minute later, but a questionable offside was called. With less than three minutes remaining, defender/middie standout Lauren Beier launched a bomb over the Darien defenders that Maturo raced down and converted for the tournament clincher. Lauren Cirrone, Montoya, and Albanese kept the ball in the Darien half for the majority of the game.