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STAMFORD, Conn. The Westhill High School girls soccer team has accomplished a lot under head coach Dave Flower, but lately the players are surprising even themselves. In what was expected to be a down year after trips to the conference and state finals, the Vikings have authored arguably their best start ever with a record of 7-0 and just one goal allowed.
Their latest victim was a team they had never beaten in Flowers seven-year tenure and the girls made it look easy. Westhill cruised to a 2-0 win over a banged-up New Canaan team to stay unbeaten.
Im happy with the 11 players that are on the field at any given time, whoever it is, Flower said. The girls just did a really good job of seeing where their opponent was playing and making the passes around them.
Westhill played like it had twice as many players on the field during its first scoring opportunity. Julia Busto and Heidi Druehl each took shots on net within seconds of each other, but were denied by the New Canaan keeper.
As New Canaan tried to clear the ball, freshman sensation Jess Laszlo intercepted. She deked out a Rams defender, finding a wide-open Nicole Pellicano. The 5-foot-3 Vikings junior forward (Flower called her a killer chipmunk) blasted an unopposed shot into the high-right corner at 28:12 in the first half.
Laszlo then showed why shes becoming the talk of the league as a freshman, displaying the footwork of a player well beyond her years. Threatened in its own zone, New Canaan attempted to clear the ball, but it went to the middle of the field.
Laszlo was there to intercept again and with three quick jukes, she faked the New Canaan defender out of her shoes. She took a wide-open shot from 20-yards out over the leap of the Rams keeper with 7:16 to play in the first half.
The defense took over from there, winning nearly every 50/50 ball the rest of the way. The Rams were held to three shots on goal.
I dont think we expected to be this good. We obviously lost so many really, really good players, Pellicano said. Its great for the upperclassmen, too. We were backup players for two or three years and now we dont need to rely on the older players.
The Westhill girls take their perfect record to cross-city rival Stamford High on Wednesday for a 4 p.m. game.
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