Girls Soccer Keeps Chugging With Clean Sheet in Regional Semifinals

The beat goes on for the Rye Girls Soccer team, who defeated New Paltz on Wednesday evening in the regional semifinals by a score of 4-0. With the win, the Garnets cement their status as a top eight team in New York State for the second year in a row and advance to the Regional finals this weekend.

“Rye played a very composed game against New Paltz to advance to the NYS Regional Finals,” Head Coach Rich Savage told MyRye.com in his postgame report. “The defensive play of Ava Cross, Claire Nemsick and Alli Koford shut down New Paltz’s scoring opportunities.”

Complementing the strong defensive play was an equally impressive offensive showing. Rye broke the ice on a corner kick, as sophomore Shira Rand found senior Reese Lejuez in the box for the opening strike. Senior Bowyn Brown provided an excellent through ball to sophomore Charlotte Keenan for Rye’s second goal. Sophomore Iciar Garate would put the Garnets up 3-0 off an assist from freshman Hannah Jachman, who found the scoresheet again to extend her point streak (although her playoff goal streak did come to an end). Jill DeSanto (from Charlotte Keenan) capped off the scoring to make it 4-0.

The Garnets are quickly establishing themselves as a model program in girls soccer, as this is their second consecutive trip to the “elite eight” of New York State. This is their 19th win of the season – most schools in the state do not even play that many games in a season.

Rye (19-1-1) will next play on Saturday, November 9 at 4:00pm at Union Endicott High School in the Regional finals. The contest against Section IV champion Chenango Valley, who is coming off a bye to this round, will be live streamed on the NFHS network. Make sure to check the linked website near gametime this weekend to watch (note: an account is needed to view the stream). Rye will look to advance back to the Final Four in the state in Class A for the second time in as many years.