Lightning Bolts Into State Cup Semifinals

The U13 Lightning girls’ soccer team advanced to the State Cup semifinals with a win over Rocky Hill this past week. Game highlights are as follows:

Lightning 3, Rocky Hill 2: The Lightning battled fiercely with Rocky Hill throughout 70 minutes of regulation play and two ten-minute overtimes in the State Cup quarterfinals. With the game still tied 1-1, the teams moved on to a penalty kick shootout and the Newtown girls finally prevailed, outscoring their opponents 2 to 1. Sarah Lynch had the first goal for the Lightning, and Jesse Sailer and Shelby Tolla scored on penalty kicks. Sailer had an excellent game in the goal, making two critical saves during the shootout. Sydney Allen was aggressive on defense, while Tolla and Kate Fallon played well in the midfield. The Lightning will face Tolland in the State Cup semifinals this Saturday, at 2 pm at Tolland Middle School.

Other recent Lighting game results are as follows:

Fairfield 2, Lightning 1: Kate Fallon scored for Newtown with a long shot that sunk deep into the net.   Defenders Meg Korchman, Dale Shearin, and Michelle Zarifis played welland did a good job of repelling the Fairfield offense, and Jesse Sailer tended the nets.

Lightning 2, New Canaan 1: Amy Martinelli scored the first goal off a perfect cross by Sarah Lynch, and Lynch put in the second goal to seal the win. Midfield play was key to the Lightning success, with contributions from Raquel Crespo, Cassie Fischer, and Megan Weber. Andrea Rodriguez put forth strong efforts on offense and Jesse Sailer had another great game in goal.