By Jen Ruhle, Megan Harvey, Dave Jacoby & Karen Gentis
Charlestown 1, Wilmington 1 — Kaley Kyle and Julia Jacoby were co-captains for the last game. This game proved to be the most spirited and contested game of the season with both teams playing excellent soccer. The girls made many excellent passes and were always pressing forward playing attacking soccer. Charisse Flanagan started the game as goalie the first half. Teammates Miceala Sindoris and Haley McLaughlin also helped out in goal the second half. All contributed by deflecting goals preserving a tie game for Charlestown. The team was led by season MVP Jackie Gentis, who scored an excellent goal to take her tally to 10 for the season. Jackie was eager to get her teammates involved with excellent crosses and through balls. Always ready to latch onto Jackie’s passes were Flanagan, Sindoris and Kailey Kennedy-Slesar, who showed excellent pace and got behind the Wilimington defense several times only to be thwarted by the goalkeeper. Chloe Shea followed her shots and came close to scoring. She dusted herself off after a physical challenge from the opposing defense and challenged them again and again with testing runs. Kyle, Aisling Newhall and Kalthuma Mohamed also played well, particularly in midfield contesting for every ball, marking up when needed, and trying to set the forwards free with through passes. Ella Moyes showed persistence in one specific play that resulted in Charlestown keeping the ball in our possession. Jacoby played her best game of the season, both in defense where she took great angles to the ball to sweep up bay Wilmington breakaways, but also in midfield where her dribbling and alert passing was a constant source of danger for the opposing team. As seen throughout the season, Julia continued to manage the defensive line, making sure everyone was marking up when needed to keep Wilmington from scoring. Haley McLaughlin was the defensive stalwart, never backing down from opposition attacks, and starting the offensive flow from the defense. Moving up from Under-10 to Under-12 this season, our younger Charlestown team faced fierce competition, but each player gave it their all ending the season with a respectable 3-4-2 record.