Titans can’t knock off unbeaten Spartans but still feeling good

Posted 9/25/14

The Toll Gate girls’ soccer team was in position to make a statement Tuesday night, when it carried the play for large stretches in a match-up with unbeaten Scituate. Ultimately, the Spartans …

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Titans can’t knock off unbeaten Spartans but still feeling good

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The Toll Gate girls’ soccer team was in position to make a statement Tuesday night, when it carried the play for large stretches in a match-up with unbeaten Scituate. Ultimately, the Spartans pulled away with three goals in the final 15 minutes.

It was a disappointing finish for the Titans, but it’s not like they haven’t already made a few statements.

In their first year in Division II, the Titans have gone 4-2-1 in their first seven games, serving notice that they’re ready to contend.

“We’re 4-2-1, so I can’t really be upset about that,” head coach Lonna Razza said after the loss to Scituate. “We played a good team tonight. Give them credit. I just don’t think the score accurately reflected the way we played tonight. We just couldn’t put the ball in the net. It happens.”

Toll Gate had a roller coaster of a first week when it scored nine goals in a season-opening win over Chariho before losing 5-1 to Coventry. After that, though, the Titans only went up.

They beat Moses Brown 3-2, Westerly 4-3 and Ponaganset 6-4, before settling for a 2-2 tie against North Smithfield.

Hannah McNulty has led the Titans with nine goals and three assists. Grace McGrath has added four goals and six assists. Lily Fortin, Marisa Giard, Haley Rouleau, Libby Costello and Madison Gothberg have also found the net.

The Titans have scored the second-most goals in Division II, just one behind league-leading Coventry.

“We’ve done well, we tied North Smithfield and we had a chance to win that game too,” Razza said. “This is a new division, all new teams we’re playing. We’ll see what happens.”

On Monday, the Titans welcomed Scituate to the Bend Street Soccer Complex. Both teams has chances in a scoreless first half, but in the second half, it was all Titans for big chunks of time. They had five quality looks in the first seven minutes of the half.

The Spartans eventually regained a measure of control, but the Titans kept threatening. McNulty got loose on the right edge twice in consecutive minutes and was one-on-one with the goalie. The first shot hit the left post. The second skirted wide of the post by a foot.

“She’s usually going to score those,” Razza said. “Her finesse on the board is unreal, for a kid who’s only a sophomore. She’s just gotten so much better. She can put the ball in the net and she can dish it off.”

The Titans continued to apply pressure, but it was the Spartans that broke through. In the 65th minute, Scituate played a ball into the box and Keryn Birrell had space to settle it. She chipped a shot past the charging Amber Francois to put her team ahead.

From there, the Spartans pulled away. Five minutes later, Birrell scored again from just in front of the left post, off a pass by Renee Bourgault. In the 75th minute, a handball in the box set up a penalty kick for the Spartans, and Bourgault drilled it.

The Titans got a few more looks but could never get on the board.

“We out-played them,” Razza said. “I think we had possession more times than not, especially in the second half. We just couldn’t finish tonight and that happens sometimes. It even happened in our JV game today. We just had that fever today.”

Overall, though, the positive vibes remain.

“I was proud of the way they played,” Razza said. “We’ve been running our new defensive formation and we needed to clean it up, and we did. We were winning balls. I told them, ‘Don’t hang your heads. Keep your heads held high.’”

The Titans were set to be back in action Wednesday against Mount St. Charles. They will host defending D-II champion Burrillville on Friday at 3:30 p.m. at City Park.

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