October 31, 2006 > Scream fall to league leaders

by Paul Dunn

Saturday, Oct. 21, saw fourth place Scream, of the Under-14 League, play first place Chaos. Led by the strong defense of Paige Rath, Jessica Carscadden, Betsy Fryan and Alyson Neal, Chaos had allowed only one goal all season propelling them to the top of the table. Scream started with four forwards and immediately tested Chaos' defense. The first 10 minutes was all Scream. It took two good saves by the Chaos goalie on shots by Scream’s Melody Chen and Zarin Kahn to deny Scream an early lead. As the Chaos defense held steady, they slowly took over the match offensively. In the 15th minute Chaos’ Ariel Figueroa broke down the right flank and her shot from just inside the penalty area, slipped past the Scream goalie and went in off the left post to give Chaos a 1-0 lead.

After the break it was Chaos' turn to take the early initiative and push forward. In the first couple of minutes they capitalized on Scream's failure to clear the ball and scored two early second half goals. In both scoring opportunities Katie Frazer of Chaos jumped on loose balls in the Scream penalty area and calmly slotted the ball past the stranded Scream goalie. Eventually, Scream midfield of Rachel Heng, Marissa Lee, Rhian Dunn, Nicole Gronski, Tina Kantaria and Chrystalle Navarro settled down to hold Chaos scoreless the rest of the way and allow Scream to try and get back into the game. With 10  minutes left Heng fed a perfect ball to Chen, who beat the offside trap and shot over the diving Chaos keeper to make the final score 3-1.