SCARBOROUGH – The top-seeded Scarborough High girls’ soccer team is unbeaten and unscored upon for a very simple reason: The players know what they’re doing.

The Red Storm continued their clear communication and stellar play Wednesday night with a 2-0 win over eighth-seeded Cape Elizabeth in the Western Class A quarterfinals.

Tori Armishaw and Haley Carignan combined for two second-half goals, each assisting the other.

Scarborough (15-0) will meet fifth-seeded Cheverus in the semifinals at home.

The Red Storm have outscored opponents, 56-0.

“They’re a classy bunch over there,” Cape Elizabeth Coach Gary Newell said. “They’re skilled. There’s no letup on their subs, and they’re extremely well-coached.”

Karyn Barrett and Emily Donovan each had a scoring chance for the Capers (8-6-2) sail just over the crossbar.

The Red Storm defense is obviously sound, with goalie Jill Deering backing up her defenders, Nicolette Caron, Heidi Bogdanovich, Emily Tolman and Jessica Broadhurst.

But Newell thought the game was won at midfield.

“Their midfielders contribute an awful lot to their success,” he said. “We didn’t possess in the midfield and it’s very difficult to link anything together.

“They work hard together and they know the game very well.”

Scarborough looked fine defensively in the first half but its offense was inconsistent, except for some early blasts that Cape goalkeeper Alexandra Weatherbie handled.

Red Storm Coach Mike Farley wanted a better flow.

“In the first half we were all on top of each other, all jammed up,” Farley said. “In the second half the midfielders did a good job of settling the play down. We got some real connectivity between our forwards and midfielders.”

Scarborough spaced out better in the second half, and the flow was obvious.

On a free kick at midfield, the Red Storm did not blast it up the field but worked it down the left side.

Carignan threaded a pretty lead pass between two Cape defenders. Armishaw took the ball in stride and booted it in at 12:21 of the second half.

“(Carignan) put it right through to me,” Armishaw said. “The timing was perfect.”

Eighteen minutes later, Armishaw fed Carignan. She beat her defender and her shot was smothered by a charging Weatherbie. But the ball was still loose as all the players fell down. Carignan got back up and kicked the ball into the open net.

“Tori is really good at finding me,” Carignan said. “Then I just gave everything I had to put the ball in the net.”

“I’ve got 12 seniors and they have all played a lot,” Farley said. “They’re very experienced, and that showed (in the second half). They stayed patient and those nice crisp passes found an opening.”

 

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be reached at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com

 

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