Kennedy leans on offensive trio

Early on this season, the Kennedy girls’ soccer team has experienced some of the usual growing pains that are common amongst young clubs. Closing out games is still an issue, as is defensive discipline. But, one advantage the Lady Cougars do have, that most young squads do not, is a trio of dangerous offensive players in their lineup. 

Senior Joslyn Barrera and sophomores Shelby Banner and Jillian Conlon combined for 20 goals and 14 assists in 2015, and could give youthful Kennedy a chance to return to the postseason this fall. 

“Having them makes the rest of the team more relaxed,” coach Roland Clark said. “I think they know that we’re never out of a game, having those quality type players on offense.”

Already this season, Barrera has netted two goals, and Banner and Conlon have each scored once. 

Their offense, along with some strong early play from juniors Isabella Infuso and Rose Mehani, has allowed Kennedy to remain competitive through the first few weeks of play. The team has fought its way to a pair of draws, but is still searching for its first win. 

“We would have liked to have a win early on,” Clark said. “But, sitting with two points in three games is pretty much where we expected to be with a young team. We have a lot of sophomore and juniors as our main players.”

There is plenty of young blood on the roster, but there are also nine returning starters. Many of Kennedy’s current players were there last fall, when the club came up just short of a postseason berth.  

“Missing out last year by a point hurt them,” Clark said. “There’s definitely a yearning to get back to the playoffs.”

One thing Clark has liked early on is the way Kennedy starts games. The Lady Cougars have been ahead or tied at halftime in all three contests. Now the focus is on learning how to hold their early advantages.

“Hopefully we get some really strong individual defensive plays to prevent the other team from getting any easy goals,” Clark said. “We expect to be really disciplined on defense this upcoming week. That’s what we’ve been really focused on at practice.”

While the Kennedy defensive unit as a whole is still developing, senior defender Nicole Levine has become quite reliable in backend of the field. “She fully commits to the defensive part of the game for us, and does so for the good of the team,” Clark said. “She does a great job of covering some of the top offensive players for the other team.”

The Lady Cougars are still learning how to play consistent winning soccer, but hope to make some big strides in the next few weeks. 

”We know we could have picked up a couple of more points early on in the season, but I think there could be a few wins coming for us in the next couple of games,” Clark said.