Colligan Nets a Pair as Greenwich Girls Clinch

GREENWICH, Conn. – With the regular season hurtling towards its conclusion, the Greenwich High School girls soccer team is playing at its best with one of its team leaders playing at the top of her game. With one play against Darien on Thursday, Shannon Colligan showed why she is arguably the most dangerous soccer player in Fairfield County.

Having already scored her team’s first goal, Colligan received a kick in from Molli Haimerl, playing it off her chest. Colligan turned, faked to the left, blew past her lone defender to the right and drilled home an emphatic insurance goal to secure a 2-0 win.

The victory clinched a spot for the Cardinals in the conference tournament.

“We’ve struggled during our away games. Coming in against an opponent like Darien, we knew they would be a team to be reckoned with today,” Colligan said. Greenwich is 4-1-3 record on the road and 6-0-0 at home.

“This gives us a lot of momentum going into our last two home games of the season. We just want to stay in the top four and get a quarterfinal at home.”

While her second goal showed off some fancy footwork, Colligan’s first goal showed her ability to get to the ball at the right time. Emily Johnson took a free kick in the 13th minute from midfield, sending the ball into a scrum in front of the net. Colligan slid into the fray and somehow was able to poke the ball with her right foot into the net past the distracted Darien goalie.

The Greenwich defense took over from there, working well to deny Darien of any direct shots and pushing away several corner kicks. Amanda Onofrio and Sarah Mischilanti had solid afternoons, keeping the Blue Wave at bay. Goalkeeper Maddie Graham tallied six saves.

The Cardinals also had luck on their side, as two Darien shots glanced off the crossbar. With less than a minute to play, Darien’s Vanessa Budd was certain she had a goal that hit the underside of the crossbar. But the ball ricocheted straight down and never crossed the goal line.

With two games remaining in the regular season, Greenwich (10-1-3) will host a tough Westhill team on Monday at 4 p.m.

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