North Kingstown shuts out Toll Gate

By Ryan D. Murray
Posted 10/5/17

The Toll Gate Lady Titans were shut out by the North Kingstown Skippers, 5-0, on Tuesday evening in Division I girls' soccer action. The bright spot of the night for the Titans was senior goalkeeper Caileigh Blackmer, who

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North Kingstown shuts out Toll Gate

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The Toll Gate Lady Titans were shut out by the North Kingstown Skippers, 5-0, on Tuesday evening in Division I girls’ soccer action.

The bright spot of the night for the Titans was senior goalkeeper Caileigh Blackmer, who stopped 21 shots in net. Conversely, the Titans’ offense was only able to muster four shots all night.

“She’s come a long way from her freshman year,” Toll Gate head coach Lonna Razza said of Blackmer. “As a senior now, she’s become the starting goalkeeper and she’s kept these games as close as they possibly can for us, with her saves and her athletic ability and the way she moves in the box and takes control in the box.”

North Kingstown senior midfielder Hannah Kuczmarski won the opening faceoff and passed downfield to Hannah Boldt and then she assisted down to Devon Libutti, who fired a shot into the back of the net and gave North Kingstown a 1-0 advantage just 27 seconds into the game.

The next time that North Kingstown came into the Toll Gate zone, Blackmer denied a shot from Mia Watkinson before the Titans’ senior captain and defenseman Maddie Smith knocked away two scoring attempts from a driving Molly MacKrell. Shortly after that, Toll Gate sophomore forward Luna Bernado got in the way of an attempt from North Kingstown’s Jacqueline Osmanski.

Down the other end, Toll Gate junior midfielder Elise Saccoccia took a shot, but she was denied in front by North Kingstown goalkeeper Elise Berlinsky with 25:18 remaining in the first half.

A minute later, North Kingstown went on a fast break and Alexandra Amore dished across to Libutti, but Blackmer came out just in time to block the shot.

Nonetheless, with 3:18 remaining in the half, MacKrell assisted to Kuczmarski, who deked past her defender before blasting it past the Toll Gate goalkeeper while giving North Kingstown a 2-0 edge.

North Kingstown’s third goal came in the second half when Jasmine Ranieri put a corner kick in front of the net and Amore leaped up into midair and one-timed it into the net to extend North Kingstown’s lead to 3-0 with 26:16 remaining in the game.

North Kingstown struck again with 11:37 remaining when Boldt passed ahead to Amaya Dickenson, who beat Bernado. However, the Titans’ forward tripped her before she could get close enough to the net. Nonetheless, Dickenson was awarded a penalty shot, which she drilled past Toll Gate’s backup goalkeeper, Gianna Cirella, increasing North Kingstown’s edge to 4-0.

North Kingstown sophomore defenseman Valarie Lind assisted to Osmanski for a tally with 1:55 remaining in the contest and increased North Kingstown’s lead to 5-0.

With the loss, Toll Gate falls to 0-7 in Division I.

Razza, the Titans’ head coach, explained the reason for her squad’s slow start.

“I have a very young team this year,” Razza said. “I have three legitimate returning starters from last year and everybody else is kind of new. I have a lot of injuries right now, I have a lot of sickness right now, so as you saw, I only had one sub all night long and we’re just going to do it with what we have and we’re just going to roll with it.”

Toll Gate plays next on Friday night at Mt. Hope at 5 p.m.

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