By Tyler Maheu
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWBURY — A hat trick from Torry Williams led a dominant Newport Women’s Soccer squad to a 7-0 victory over the Mount Royal Academy Knights on Tuesday, August 30, 2022.
From the match’s opening kick, Newport held total control of the season opening matchup. The Tigers controlled the ball, spending a majority of the first half’s minutes on the attacking end. However, early on, Mount Royal was able to keep the visiting team away from the net, largely on the back of solid defensive play from Susan Kanu. “Susan Kanu is one of the more aggressive, fearless defenders,” said Knights Head Coach Derek Tremblay.
Around the first half’s 20-minute mark, Williams would break the scoreless tie for her first goal of the game, and season, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. A massive defensive save from Kanu a few moments later would keep Mount Royal within a one goal deficit.
But then, the flood gates began to open. Williams would again find the back of the net, off a beautiful assist from Makayla Cossingham, who would then find paydirt herself moments later to extend the Tigers’ lead to 3-0 going into halftime. “Well, I really didn’t have a great gameplan,” said Newport Head Coach Gary McCall. “I really just wanted to keep our shape on the field, good spacing. Being the first game, kinda get a baseline of what we look like. I tell you; I was very pleasantly surprised with the way we played today. Great communication all over the field, I am pretty happy with the way we played.”
Williams would begin the second half right where she left off, netting her third goal of the contest for her hat trick. This goal would come off an errant kick from Mount Royal’s Goalkeeper Ava Meyer that went directly to the attacking Tiger, leading to a rocket into the net from around 15 yards out. “She was the girl I was hoping to replace Riley Skarin from last year who scored a majority of our goals,” said McCall of the sophomore’s dominant performance. “But to see contributions from other girls on the field, was exactly what I needed to see to start the season.”
Newport would continue attacking, as another Cossingham goal would push the lead to 5-0 before Brooklyn Ranney would add two of her own to reach the game’s final score of 7-0 Tigers. Ranney’s first goal came off a penalty kick, following a pushing call on Kanu, while her second came off a save rebound. The pushing call was part of the second half’s evident rise in physicality, which led to some jawing between McCall and Tremblay from the sidelines. According to both coaches, this minor dispute was cleared up after the game, with no hard feelings left behind.
By game’s end, the Tigers had launched 17 shots on net, with seven shots scoring, leading to a goal percentage of 41%. Meanwhile, Mount Royal was only able to muster one shot on goal, which Newport goalkeeper Emma O’Connor was able to bat away.
The win for Newport starts their season off right at 1-0, as they look ahead to a matchup with Hinsdale on Friday at 4 PM on their home pitch. “What I saw today, compared to how practice has been the last few weeks, I didn’t see this out of us today. Good first game, we will go on to prepare the next couple days for Hinsdale and see how that goes,” McCall stated.
For the Knights, they will look to rebound from this opening season defeat with a 6 PM matchup on Thursday at Wilton-Lyndeborough.
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