By Kelsey Ichikawa | Features Editor 

It was a slightly chilly evening on Jan. 8 when Irvington’s girls’ varsity soccer team spread out on the field at TAK Memorial Stadium to face off against James Logan.  Despite coming close to scoring several times, Irvington ended up losing 5-0 to the James Logan Colts.

In the first half, James Logan was able to crowd Irvington’s defense and kick the ball quickly so that the goalie was unable to block it. This tactic led James Logan to score 3 fast goals. Irvington’s offense made three attempts to score, including one that excited the crowd when a lady Viking received a long pass from across the field, an opportune opening since most of James Logan’s players lagged by Irvington’s goal, which left James Logan’s defense relatively weak. Unfortunately, all shots were blocked by James Logan’s goalie.

Much of the game was played on Irvington’s side of the field, as James Logan often intercepted or stole the ball during Irvington’s passes.  Irvington goalie Aasna Shah blocked two shots in the first half of the game, and team captain Rebecca Ryan made a close save when Irvington’s goal was left unguarded and James Logan attempted to score.

“I think we’re starting to learn how to adjust to the teams we’re playing,” said team captain Ryan, “but I was disappointed with our lack of aggression because Logan is a physical team, so they had that advantage over us.”

During the second half of the game, James Logan maintained their momentum and scored two more points, and although Irvington had several close shots, none were successful.

“The girls played hard against James Logan, but unfortunately we weren’t connecting passes well enough,” said team captain Kirsten Wong. “We’ll have to work on that a lot more, since we have a bunch of new players, but hopefully things will improve by the next time we play James Logan.”