Baldwin knocks off Kennedy, 3-1

It was a matchup of technique versus speed last Friday at Baldwin, as the Lady Bruins hosted Kennedy in the first round of the Nassau Class AA girls’ soccer playoffs. But in the end, speed overcame.

While scoring chances were frequent for both teams, it was 7th-seeded Baldwin that was able to capitalize on its opportunities, sending three balls into the back of the net to defeat the No. 10 Lady Cougars, 3-1. 

“We wanted to use our speed against their flat-four defense,” Baldwin coach Darius Burton said. “Two out if the three goals we scored, we used our speed. We beat them to the ball and went right to the goal.” 

Baldwin forward Ayanna Smith spent the game hovering around midfield, waiting for her teammates to send a ball her way so she could jet towards the opposite goal. It finally came midway through the second half after a pass from defender Jessica Mouridian, who led Smith perfectly for a breakaway chance, and Smith placed the ball past Kennedy keeper Nicole Liotta. The goal gave Baldwin a 3-1 lead, and promptly put the game on ice.

Kennedy, which relied more on the decision-making and ball-control from its midfield of juniors Kerri Baum, Chelsea Simon and Meredith Jones, as well as senior Danielle Gilman, had many scoring chances, but just couldn’t put the ball past Baldwin keeper Amber Harrison, who had eight saves.

On two separate occasions, Baum and Simon sent crossing passes across the goal box, one of which was tipped just wide of the goal by forward Marley Gerber. “We got in the box numerous times, and we hung in there,” Kennedy coach Janine Bizelia said. “We tried to play our game, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the net.”

Baldwin’s first two goals came as a result of loose balls in the goal box that were kicked into the net. The first was by junior Samantha Leavey, which came midway through the first quarter, and the second was by senior Ashley Sobel off a corner kick from sophomore Ashley Gangi towards the end of the first half. “We’ve had a tough time this year scoring,” Burton said. “But when we had opportunities today, we put it in.”

Kennedy finally converted early in the second half, when Gerber smashed a ball from nearly 30 yards away. The ball tipped the bottom half of the goal post and ended up in the back of the net.

The goal made the score 2-1, and at the time it seemed like the momentum may have begun to shift. The Cougars kept attacking, but 20 minutes later, in the blink of an eye, Baldwin changed fields on a Kennedy scoring chance, and the result was a breakaway goal by Smith.

“This is a very good Bellmore team that had a lot of chances, but we got lucky,” Burton said. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”