Only one week after their first game of the season — a loss to perennial Henlopen championship contender Caesar Rodney, 4-0 — the Indian River Lady Indians varsity soccer team showed great resilience against one of the better teams in the conference, handing Sussex Tech (3-1) their first loss of the season in a 2-0 shutout effort on April 3.
Indian River went ahead 1-0 in the 30th minute on a header from Marlena Schleifer and an assist from Michelle Giorgilli. And Giorgilli added the Lady Indians’ second score on a lob shot over the goalie’s head, following a strong shot by senior captain Shawnee Seitz. It gave the team a comfortable 2-0 lead midway through the second half (68th minute).
Seitz took a bit of a fall following the shot and there was some question about whether or not there should’ve been a penalty shot.
“It obviously should’ve been a penalty on Shawnee’s shot, but it wasn’t called and it appeared that everybody stopped except for Michelle. She kept playing and was able to take full advantage of the situation,” Kilby said.
Giogilli said after the game that she felt comfortable that they’d win even with only a one-goal lead. And it was easy to see why — the entire team did what they had to do to keep Sussex Tech from getting quality scoring opportunities.
“I was still confident we’d win with a one-goal lead, because we’d played great defense,” Giorgilli said. “We’d kept up the intensity the whole game and we would’ve kept it up,” she added of a possible 1-0 game.
Sussex Tech mustered only five shots and one corner kick, compared to Indian River’s 15 shots on goal and seven corner kicks.
Indian River head coach Steve Kilby credited the win to a total team effort.
“Coming in, this senior team had never lost to Tech, and this proved to be a great turnaround game, he said.
“We knew this was a game we had to have, and the girls showed a lot of resilience,” Kilby noted. “Jenna McKone, Brooke Timmons, Kelly Jurusik and Marlena Schleifer were the four controllers out there. Beck did a nice job even though they didn’t threaten us early. And Erin Korvelesy and Alex Roenke did a nice job of running the flanks to keep them from closing in on us.
“This was a good win all-around,” he added.”
“This win showed us where are,” Giorgilli said.
“We want to win as many games as possible but we still have some games coming up to worry about,” Kilby said. “Sussex Central always is a tough game. We still play the Dover’s and the Delmars. Both of them will be tough games. And then we play Middletown, who is one of the best teams in the state.”
Following a 10-0 win over Woodbridge and an 8-0 over Milford on March 29, the Lady Indians improved their record to 3-1.
Indian River was set to play at Sussex Central on April 5, after the Coastal Point’s deadline, then has the next week off for the Easter break before hosting Delmar and Seaford on April 17 and 19, respectively.