Girls set to go in NVL tourney

The field for the NVL girls soccer tournament is set.

Woodland (14-1-1, 13-1 NVL) secured the top seed with a 3-1 win over Naugatuck on Monday and a 4-0 win over Torrington on Wednesday. Naugatuck (6-10, 6-8 NVL) is the No. 7 seed.

Gillian Hotchkiss booted a 40-yarder just over the head of Naugatuck keeper Cassidy Baranowski (11 saves) to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead at the half on Monday. Megen Sirowich and Erin Machado scored second half goals for Woodland. Kyla Magalhaes scored for the Greyhounds to complete the scoring. Jenna Pannone made four saves in the net for the Hawks.

With a change in format this year, the top seeds will host quarterfinal games on Saturday rather than play games at neutral fields.

Woodland will host No. 8 Seymour at 12 p.m. Naugatuck will visit No. 2 Watertown at 11 a.m. in a rematch of the regular-season finale on Wednesday that saw the Greyhounds give Watertown all it could handle before falling 3-2.

St. Paul, Wolcott, Holy Cross and Oxford round out the field.

Another change is the final won’t be played at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury. The semifinals are Nov. 1 at Watertown High School and the final is Nov. 3 at Naugatuck High.

For Woodland, the hill gets a little steeper as the defending champions. Watertown (12-1-1 NVL) has split a pair of games with the Hawks this season. It was Watertown that snapped the Hawks’ unbeaten streak.

“Obviously we would like another shot at Watertown,” Woodland head coach Cait Witham said. “Just as long as it’s not in the semifinals in Watertown. There are a lot of teams out there that have the capability to reach the championship game, and we want to be one of them.”

Pannone is a definite All-NVL goalie — she has allowed just six goals all season — and possibly an All-State candidate. The defense of Eliza Smith, Haley Wolfanger and Olivia Kotsaftis have helped Pannone to 10 shutouts.

Sam Plasky, Haley Andrews and Hailey Boris have all helped to jump start the offense, which has scored 69 goals.

“Offense has been a big part of our success this season,” Witham said. “I think our biggest test will be to put together a solid 80 minutes. There have been times where we had a solid 40 or 60 minutes but anything less is just not going to do it in this tournament.”

The Greyhounds’ claim to fame is they have a penchant of playing for NVL titles regardless of their record. They have been to the title game six times during an eight-year period.

It’s almost like flipping a switch. But this year the switch has been broken for most of the season due to a bevy of injuries. However, Naugatuck has the benefit of getting battletested, either by design or by chance, as the schedule had them face Woodland and Watertown in the final week of the regular season.

“Playing teams that are fast paced and strong helps us to prepare for tournament play,” Naugatuck head coach Lisa Mariano said. “It helps to bring our play up to the level where we are capable of playing.”

Alyana Sosa and Nicole Crowley will team up with Magalhaes and Kaitlyn Rielly to try and jump start the Greyhounds’ offense, which has scored 38 goals. The defense led by Erin Doris, Catarina Rego and Sofia Marques will have to play at that higher level the coach was referring to in order to do better than the 44 goals allowed.