Teamwork pays off in John Jay win over Fox Lane in girls soccer

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Clockwise from top left, John Jay's Sophya Papa and Fox Lane's Sofia Valenzuela seeming to dance to the ball; John Jay's Maye Viders battles for possession of the ball with Fox Lane's Madelyn Sotherden; Fox Lane goalie Dylan New reaches to make a save; Avery Rand, left, an Lily Mazzuca battle for the ball. JIM MACLEAN PHOTOS

By JIM MACLEAN 

Soccer is a team game, 11 players at once working together on the field, and the scorebook showed that it was a team victory for John Jay when the Wolves hosted Fox Lane on Thursday, Oct. 1. A total of seven different players scored a goal for the Wolves and the defense did its job at the other end for a shutout as John Jay pulled away for an 8-0 victory.

Sophomore Maye Viders led the push on offense as she scored a pair of goals and assisted on another as the Wolves are heating up and finding their stride with six straight wins. Two days before the win at home over Fox Lane, John Jay scored a big 2-1 win on the road at Somers, and the Wolves closed out the big week with a 2-0 win on the road over Horace Greeley on Saturday, Oct. 3, to improve to 6-1-1 overall.

Balanced attack

“We’ve been growing as a team, doing really well and the scoreboard showed it,” Viders said of the balanced attack against Fox Lane. “Having that many goal scorers is great and it’s nice to see that many people get on the scoreboard.”

That balance is exactly what the coaches want to see as John Jay battles with a chance to win the league title. The wins over Somers, Fox Lane and Greeley were all league victories for the Wolves as they head down the home stretch of the regular season heading towards the playoffs.

“We started the game out strong, performing well, and we were able to get people involved and everyone did their job,” John Jay coach Dave Nuttall said after the Fox Lane game. “We got a lot of them to get one across the goal line which was nice to see, we don’t want to rely on one person, we want to be a true team where everyone contributes.”

Coco Inglis got the Wolves started as she scored off a cross from Maye Viders to give John Jay a 1-0 lead just six minutes into the game.

Viders then took control as she scored the next two goals of the game about 10 minutes apart to give John Jay a 3-0 lead. First, Viders gained control off a throw-in, worked the ball into the box and scored. Then she scored again off an assist from Sophya Papa.

Sarah Mardon scored off a rebound to make it 4-0 at halftime.

Pouring it on

The Wolves picked up in the second half where they left off as Papa scored to make it 5-0. Avery Rand followed with a goal off an assist from Abby Mattielo to make it 6-0, and Mattielo then scored herself to make it 7-0.

Lina Halaifonua gave her teammates one more reason to cheer as she booted home a long shot for a goal to make the final score 8-0.

Despite the final score, Fox Lane kept battling to the end, and senior captain Dylan New came up with several big saves in the first half to keep the Foxes in the game.

“Dylan took the reins as a leader, started connecting with our central defenders against a very talented team, and our defense has made significant improvement,” explained Fox Lane coach Christiaan Cacciotti. “The score line doesn’t show how hard they’ve worked. They definitely didn’t give up today and played to the end and it will come together. I’m proud of my girls. We’re in a tough league with a complete reset of a team and I know how hard they have worked and I’m very proud of them.”

Mattielo's big day

At Somers, it was a big day for Mattielo as she scored both goals to lift John Jay to the 2-1 win against a big rival and a strong league foe. 

“Somers was a big win, an intense game, so it was nice to come away from there with a victory,” Nuttall said. “We’re coming together, definitely making progress.”

John Jay hopes to keep the win streak going as the Wolves were set to host Brewster on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and Somers on Oct. 9. John Jay then has a rematch with Fox Lane on Tuesday, Oct. 13, as the Foxes host the Wolves.