After shutting out Fairfield Ludlowe in a Class L Tournament qualifier, the Greenwich field hockey team held another opponent scoreless on Wednesday night.
This time, second-seeded Hall was unable to score against the 15th-seeded Cardinals, who registered a 1-0 road win.
The triumph propelled Greenwich into Friday’s Class L Tournament quarterfinals, where they will visit FCIAC rival Ridgefield at 4:30 p.m.
“It was awesome,” GHS coach Megan Wax said. “Hall is a great team, but our team came out mentally ready. They didn’t let the weather, or long bus ride affect their mentality.”
Greenwich (11-7) and Hall (15-2) entered halftime in a scoreless tie.
“We controlled the ball for the most part, in the first half,” Wax said. “We had it down in our offensive end the majority of the game.”
The Cardinals scored the game’s lone goal with 17:40 remaining in the second half, courtesy of Ellie Ybarra.
A junior, Ybarra scored off a penalty corner, which was initiated by junior Charlotte Gans’ insert pass.
“We scored off one of our corners, which was great,” Wax said. “Ellie had a nice hit from the right side of the goal. We had a couple of corners before that where we were unbelievably close to scoring. After that goal, the energy level was up on both teams. They put some pressure on us, but we used an effective time kill in the final minutes.”
Wax credited junior Agustina Ferrario for helping the Cardinals control the ball in the center of the field and senior Demi Janis for extending plays and creating scoring opportunities.
Junior Jorja Pastore made five saves in goal for Greenwich, which allowed Hall to take only two penalty corners for the game.
“Our defenders were aggressive and once again, were looking really good,” Wax said. “They were not rushing to get rid of the ball.”
As for the Cards’ next challenge at Ridgefield?
“We are excited, playing an FCIAC team is always a difficult task,” Wax said. “Our team has really picked up the tempo in this tournament.”
dfierro@greenwichtime.com
