Lenox girls’ soccer ‘stacks pretty well’ against county’s best

LENOX – When the season started, Lenox girls’ soccer coach Matt Cote wasn’t sure his young team would be able to return to the western Massachusetts finals. After the first seven games, the Lady Millionaires are 5-1-1 with a convincing win over Lee last Friday and tying a very good Wahconah team on Tuesday.

“My veterans are showing the younger kids the way, and we are putting together a pretty decent season,” Cote said. “We stack pretty well against everyone and I am pretty impressed with my midfielders Josie Marshall and Sandra Arace – who is a superstar.”

“They can distribute the ball and they can find space – the goal Sandra scored was absolutely beautiful,” Cote added.

Against Lee (3-1-1) coming into the Friday afternoon tilt, Lenox scored three goals in the first half to cruise over the Wildcats, 4-0. Lenox’s final goal was culminated when defender Hayden Zinchuk came up from the back line and sent a “beautiful” ball ahead to a streaking Arace who nailed home the final tally.

“We talk about it all the time when it comes to finishing, it doesn’t have to be glamorous, it doesn’t have to be long, it just needs to stay on the field and get numbers in the box and good things happen and it happened [Friday],” Cote said.

Jen Delasco led off the scoring for the Millionaires against Lee, as she scooted a wet ball through the legs of Wildcats goalie Sara Middleton for the opening goal.

Lenox’s Tova Brown added the second goal when she tapped in a beautiful cross by Delasco just two minutes later.

“In the first half we had a lot of nice balls coming across the box,” Cote said. “You knock, knock, knock – you are going to open that door every now and then.”

The difference for the Millionaires this season has been the ability of the younger players to come together and adapt to Cote’s zone pressure in keeping opponents out of the net.

“[I am] happy in the second half that our defensive organization started to come together, we have some new kids who are not familiar with the defensive zone pressure we are playing as much as others, and they are getting it,” Cote said.

Offensively, there may not be anyone better than Lenox’s leading goal-scorer Delasco (one goal, one assist last Friday).

“Delasco is an animal – she has the mentality of a goal-scorer,” Cote said. “You can see it, she has it.”

Complimenting Delasco’s play as an attacker, is eighth-grader Brown, whose presence in the offensive zone has her coach singing her praise  – surprisingly.

“Even though [Brown] is an eighth-grader, she is as skillful as anyone,” Cote said. “She is getting more and more comfortable – she is a perfect kid.”

Overall, the coach is excited about the team’s chances as they move forward in the season, with a legit shot at competing with Wahconah and Pittsfield for the Berkshire County division lead.

“It makes me so happy to see [the girls] execute exactly what we are talking about – it makes a coach happy,” Cote said.

Posted by Tim Davis on October 4, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry