MILLBURN MAGIC 5, CDSA FUTURE 0

MILLBURN, NJ (05/17/09) - The Millburn Magic opened their 2009 Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) campaign with an impressive 5-0 victory at Millburn High School. Taking the field in front of their home fans against the Central Delaware Future in East Conference action, the Magic scored two goals in the first half, before racing away with three more in a fine season opening win.

"We had good early chances, but we also got opened up too many times in the first half," said Magic head coach Andy Sones. "Lia [Fierro] came up big for us when she had to, and the goals we scored settled us down. The early win will help us, and we'll be defensively tighter when we play next... Scoring just before half time was good, and we said at half time that the next goal would define the game. To score within a minute of the restart did wonders for us."

The Magic enjoyed large spells of possession from the start of the game; Kim Malecki in particular enjoying time on the ball as she led the Magic on offense. After fifteen minutes, the Future started to find their rhythm and create pressure on the Magic's defense. Laura DiClemente had the Future's first attempt at goal on 20 minutes; after being played through on goal, the midfielder drilled her shot straight into Magic keeper Lia Fierro.

Fierro was tested again minutes later, diving to smother the effort of Delaware forward Heather Robbins. The Future's best effort of the game came on 27 minutes; a long ball over the top of the Magic defense again finding the dangerous Robbins, who was unlucky to see her volley finish just wide of the post having beaten the diving Fierro.

That scare shook Millburn into action, and they took control for the rest of the half. The Magic were rewarded for their persistence on 35 minutes with a goal from Ryan. A cross from defender Lina Starapoli was beautifully chested down by Leah Jerome into the path of Ryan who coolly slotted the ball past Lazor with her left foot. In the 43rd minute, the Magic doubled their lead; Jerome, again involved, finding midfielder Tara Ricciardi wide on the right who beat her defender and delivered a fantastic cross which was headed home by Amanda Malkiewicz at the far post.

Straight from the second half kick off, the Magic dismissed any doubts over the result with a well taken second goal from Malkiewicz. Receiving the ball on the left hand side, the East Carolina forward cut inside, before delivering an unstoppable curling shot which past the despairing Lazor, and gave the Magic a 3-0 lead.

Laura Kurash delivered a performance full of energy, and in the 62nd minute, was rewarded when she arrived to steer home a Carly Bray corner from close range. The goal gave the Magic a 4-0 lead, but the home side was not yet finished. Indeed, the final Magic goal was the pick of them all, again delivered again by the impressive Kurash in the 78th minute. The Magic will take the field again next Wednesday, May 27th when they will host the New York Athletic Club.

Magic Line-up: GK - Lia Fierro; Defense - Biz Shenk, Marlyanne Delargy, Lina Staropoli, Carly Bray; Midfield - Katy Fissel, Tara Ricciardi, Laura Kurash; Forward - Katie Ryan, Kim Malecki, Amanda Malkiewicz. Subs: Kelly Sims (25), Kelly Feeney (16) Leah Jerome (30), Lara Kaminski (27), Robin Chernow (80).

CDSA Line-up: GK - Klare Lazor; Defense - Jill Dean, Lea Cataggio, Chelsea Brown, Stacey Lamborn; Midfield - Meaghan Dibiase, Colette Swensen, Laura DiClemente, Leanne Reid; Forward - Heather Robbins, Lauren Riff. Subs: Patty Speilman (48), America Sosa, Jael Fedoda (68), Whitney Prindible (55).

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BOSTON AZTEC 4, NEW YORK ATHLETIC CLUB 0

PELHAM, NY (05/16/09) – Coming off its season opening 4-0 victory the previous weekend, the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) squad was eager to get back on the field again, this time in front of their home crowd at Travers Island in Pelham, NY.  The visitors, the Boston Aztec were playing in their 2009 season opener & treated their hosts to a taste of what they dished out last week, defeating the NYAC team with the same 4-0 score.

The Aztec, who recently signed a reserve team affiliation agreement with the WPS Boston Breakers, had three Breakers players in their starting line-up - goalkeeper Ashley Phillips and defenders Ariel Harris & Abby Crumpton - complemented by a strong group of reserve players.

"We knew coming in that this would be a tough challenge for us," said NYAC coach Alex Lau. "Our players put up a good fight. We were beaten by a better team today."

The Aztec team put on the pressure right from the opening whistle. In the 17th minute, an errant clearance in front of the goal resulted in an own goal by NYAC's Melissa Mann. In the 30th minute, Boston's Mary-Francis Monroe - a former WUSA Boston Breaker - found some open space at the edge of the NYAC penalty box off of a pass from Sophia Mundy, and fired a shot past NYAC goalie Tyler Griffin. 

With a two-goal half-time lead, the Aztec continued to press hard in the second half. NYAC on its part was not content to just defend - it registered three shots on goal in the second half but was not able to put the ball behind Aztec's goalie Phillips. In the 57th minute, Mundy fired a volley past NYAC's Griffin from just outside the penalty box, off of an assist from player/coach Rebekah Splaine.

The final tally of the game for the Aztec came off of an in-swinging corner kick from Ariel Harris in the 85th minute. NYAC goalkeeper Griffin got a hand on the ball, but it fell in behind the goal line.

NYAC's next match will be at Millburn High School against the Millburn Magic on Wednesday, May 27th. Kick-off is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. Meanwhile, Boston Aztec will next play a friendly against the Boston Breakers on Thursday, May 21st at 7:00 p.m. at Amesbury Sports Park. The next WPSL match for the Aztec will be against the Lancaster Inferno on Saturday, May 30th at 6:30 p.m. at Hempfield High School in Landisville, PA.

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NEW ENGLAND MUTINY 4, MAINE TIDE 0
By Mike Bogen of The Republican

NORTHAMPTON, MA (05/16/09) - The New England Mutiny have joined the chase for the Women's Premier Soccer League Eastern Division championship it left in the hands of SoccerPlus Conn. last year, and if their opening night was any indication, the Mutiny will be in the title scramble.

The Mutiny, who defeated their Eastern rival, the Maine Tide, 4-0, before 842 at rainy Northampton High School on Saturday, will do it with women who in the past played secondary roles to the veterans who carried the team to repeated Eastern championships and appearances in the WPSL national championship final.

Erin Clark, a junior at the University of Connecticut, and a second-year starter - third-year player - for the Mutiny, is one of those women, and last night the lanky attacker had her breakout game, a hat trick that made this game a runaway.

Clark, who scored once in the first half and twice in the second, is quite aware that she is at the center of the change in the Mutiny, a change that places more responsibility on younger shoulders.

"I had a lot of people to look up to last year and now I'm just kind of trying to do what they did for us," said Clark, who in one game scored half as many goals as she did in 14 starts last year.

It was, however, a newcomer, Windham, Conn., junior Riley Houle, who scored the Mutiny's first goal of the 2009 season, one that turned out to be the game-winning goal only 1:44 into the game. She was assisted by another newcomer, former High School of Science and Technology star Brittany Barry.

Clark made it 2-0 in the 37th minute, grabbing up a loose ball in front of the Maine goal and beating Tides' goalie Michelle Rich, who had committed to the gathering of humanity out of which the ball had popped.

Danielle Dakin assisted on Clark's final goal, finding the attacker on the right flank about 15 yards out from the goal, a place from which Clark dribbled in and beat the goalie to top left corner.

"It took us a good five to 10 minutes to get into it but we started yelling and meshing. I thought we played really well," Clark said.

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TSC MARYLAND PRIDE 0, A.C. DIABLOS 0

COLUMBIA, MD (05/16/09) - TSC Maryland Pride forward Lisa Zanti created two scoring opportunities, but were unable to find the net in an abbreviated 0-0 opening game draw against the Atlantic City Diablos on Saturday in a WPSL East match-up. The Pride (0-0-1) out-chanced Atlantic City (0-0-1) by a 4-2 margin. The two teams combined to hit three posts in the first 63 minutes of the WPSL East matchup, but match officials called the game after seeing lightning 18 minutes into the second half.

Zanti and midfielder Christy Bush brought the crowd to it's feet in the 23rd minute, after Zanti made a run down the right touchline past Diablos defender Kasey Makowski and drove a cross to the far post. A diving Bush rocketed a ball off the crossbar. Forward Karyn Farrar got into the mix in the 37th minute when midfielder Mandy Romer found her with a cross at the top of the six-yard box, but Farrar couldn't get a foot on the ball cleanly and it rolled wide of the post.

Diablos goalkeeper Bridget Mahon preserved the 0-0 score two minutes before halftime, when Zanti danced around three Diablos defenders at the penalty spot. From 10 yards, she sent a shot low to the corner, which Mahon sprung to her right to deflect wide. TSC hit the crossbar again early in the second half on striker Jerica Dewolfe's shot from 20 yards out.

Reserve Shelley Gubney gave the Diablos their best chance two minutes later, when she collected a botched clearing attempt by Pride defender Danielle Malagari. Gubney then beat Haley Howe off the dribble and beat TSC keeper Jocelyn Papciak, but her shot rang off the far post and was safely cleared. Each team had one corner kick.

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BAY STATE SELECTS 2, MAINE TIDE 1

EASTON, MA (05/15/09) - Bay State Selects held off the Tide of Maine 2-1 to notch their first win of the season in the WPSL East. The match was very competitive as each side was pulling for the win but in the end, it was the outstanding defensive work of the Selects that kept the victory for the home side.

The game started out very even as both teams tried to establish themselves in the match but at the 7 minute mark, Erica Mastrogiacomo found Jen Leaverton with a perfectly executed cross and Leaverton finished past Maine goalie Michelle Rich to put the Selects up 1-0. Mastrogiacomo and Leaverton combined several more times but were not able to finish.

Then at 31:30, Shelby Bradford finished a nice combination play from Whitney Sinclair to tie the score 1-1. That was short lived however as Jenna Roncarati won the ball at midfield and took the ball down the middle and scored unassisted at 34:30 to give the Selects a 2-1 lead which they would never relinquish.

Goalies Stephanie Gordon and Emily Nahas turned away 4 shots on goal to help preserve the win. For the game, The Bay State Selects had 14 shots, 9 on goal and 5 corners and the Maine Tide had 9 shots, 5 on goal and 5 corners.

Kelly Matthews and Jen Leaverton both from Bay State Selects were voted the Defensive and Offensive MVP's of the match.