The Lucan Community College minor girls soccer team kicked off their season with a 5-1 cup win over Sacred Heart Drogheda. There were many new faces on the team with eight 1st year players thrust into a squad that had a successful run in the league last year reaching the quarter final stage.
Fresh from a summer of relaxation, the team flew out the traps netting an early goal to help ease the nerves. The goal was scored by Amy Green who pressured the defender into a mistake allowing here to run through on goal. Throughout the game there was an intense midfield battle with Lucan coming out on top on numerous occasions due to the 3-player midfield which consisted of Shauna Cooney, Sarah Nolan and captain Clodagh McDonnell. It was a consistently fierce, but fair, battle with Lucan coming out with the ball or winning the loose ball after the tackle.
It was from this midfield battle that Lucan CC notched their second of the game. Fierce tackling from the terrier that is Sarah Nolan, led to the ball breaking to Clodagh McDonnell who played an inch perfect through ball to striker Amy Green who netted her second of the day. The Lucan CC defence was tested towards the end but kept safe thanks to the astute tackling of Aoibhe Fleming and strength of Freya Colgan.
After half time it was more of the same from Lucan. The team knew that if they netted quickly after the restart, they could slow the game down and play at a more relaxed pace. Sarah Winders cut in from the wing to smash a ball past the Sacred Heart goalkeeper, who it must be said made a string of great saves throughout the match. It was time to ring the changes with many 1st year students coming off the bench to make their debut for the red and black of Lucan Community College.
A short while later, Lucan were awarded a penalty with the calm and collected Aoibhe Fleming stepping up to take and duly dispatch high to the keepers right. Many more changes came for Lucan which had an impact on the flow of the game. Sacred Heart pulled one back with a fine finish soon after. They tested the keeper on many other occasions, even hitting the cross bar at one stage.
However, Lucan weren’t finished scoring with great passing between the midfielders and winger Saoirse Balfe to set up Clodagh McDonnell who broke through the Sacred Heart defence to tee up Aoife Hanan allowing her to net her first goal for the team with hopefully many more to come.
Overall it was an excellent performance from the whole team who want to go all the way in this competition. A huge thank you to their dedicated coach Mr Morris for his continued efforts in coaching the girls team.
