MONTICELLO–– It was a sunny but frigid day for Monticello’s Senior Night when the Girls Soccer team hosted Cornwall for one of their final games of the season. The 5-1 loss to Cornwall was a tough game from the start for Monticello but they battled it out and never gave up. “My girls played really well and put up good competition. We’ve grown better at communication and spacing throughout the season and I’m proud of them,” commented their coach Lindsay Rowe. 

As soon as the game started, Cornwall came out of the gate with a lot of dominance and pressure on both sides of the field. They drew first blood 2 minutes into the game with a hard kick to the corner of the goal to score. Then off an inbound breakaway Cornwall scored again a few minutes later to make it 2-0 early in the half. At the 10 minute mark Cornwall repeated that in bound player and cut through multiple Monticello defenders to bring the score to 3-0. 

Monticello was struggling to get the ball up field through Cornwall’s tough defense but towards the end of the half they did get a chance at the goal that came close but Cornwall’s goalie was able to barely save it in time. That was the only attempt Monticello got in the first half though and soon after Cornwall started playing a more defensive “keep away” style to end the half. 

The second half played out much the same as the first, with Cornwall scoring  2 more times in the first 10 minutes. However, Monticello found their flow a bit more and started communicating and making solid passes. This allowed them to take possession more which translated into more attempts at scoring but they weren’t able to convert on their gains. Coach Rowe echoed this sentiment when interviewed after the game, “We did our team passing well but we definitely need to work on our awareness and positioning more to turn those opportunities into points.” 

With 2 minutes left in the game Cornwall scored one final time, and Monticello was able to immediately respond with their first goal of the game. Sadly, Monticello picked up their pace a bit too late and weren’t able to overcome the lead Cornwall had built earlier in the game. The victory went to Cornwall with a 6-1 on the road win over Monticello. Coach Rowe had this to say after the game, “We grew a lot this season and I’m very proud of the whole team. I’m excited for our last game coming up on the 18th against Valley Central, and I’m excited to see what next season will bring.”