East girls soccer starts season 8-0
Flames ranked No. 1 in WNY, fifth in state
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville East's Jenny Griffin beats Williamsville South's Alex Ciolko to the ball during the Lady Flames' 4-1 road win last Thursday. East is 8-0 and ranked No. 1 in Western New York. Photo by Joe Eberle

It's early in the fall 2006 season but Williamsville East's varsity girls soccer team looks to be unstoppable. As of this writing, the Lady Flames are 8-0 overall and 4-0 in ECIC Division II. East is ranked No. 1 in Western New York and ranked fifth in Class A in New York State.

"We're getting great play out of everybody," said East coach Chris Durr said. "Aleks Quenneville, for one, has done a tremendous job. We've also gotten a lot of good play out of our younger kids like Katie Griffin, Tara Kiernan, and Alex Lima."

What also makes East one of the best is its ability to spread scoring around. Nine different players have scored and 12 have an assist.

Rachel Piemonte leads the East offense. The senior forward broke Emily Urbanczyk's all-time goal scoring record against Amherst on Sept. 12. Through East's 2-1 victory Monday over Williamsville North, Piemonte has netted 13 goals on the year, lifting her all-time mark to 54. Urbanczyk netted 44 goals from 1999 to 2002. Piemonte also has five assists.

"She's been one of our kids who for four years been a true leader and one of the hardest working kids I've ever coached," said Durr.

She's done everything I've asked her to do. What makes her special is that she's very fast and plays the ball with both feet and seems to be in the right place at the right time. It's a tremendous accomplishment to get to that point and to know she has 10 games left and hopefully more is pretty impressive. It's been a pleasure and honor for me to work with her."

Jessica Kowalski has seven goals.

Center midfielder Jenny Griffin, who led East last year with 19 goals, has only three this fall but already has 11 assists. She had 13 assists in 2005.

"She's been really good at distributing the ball this year," said Durr. "She's been very unselfish. I'm very happy with the way she's played. She controls the midfield area and has some nice passes and crosses to set people up."

Senior midfielder Aleks Quenneville has two goals and eight assists.

Durr also lauded the play of Christa Morgante, Neha Bakhai, Jen Sommer, Beth Kaiser, Morgan Begy, Jordan Kowalski who he has rotated in at defense.

"We've only allowed four goals on the year, not more than one in a game," said Durr.

East's wins have come over Iroquois (5-0), Amherst (4-0), West Seneca East (4-1), Lake Shore (7-0), Williamsville South (4-1) and Monday, knocked off Williamsville North, 2-1. East won two games at the Cohocton Soccer Showcase earlier this month.

East's unbeaten season almost ended against North. The Lady Spartans took a 1-0 lead five minutes into the second half. Jessica Kowalski tied the game at 1 from a Morgante free kick and Piemonte put in a Jenny Griffin rebound with eight minutes to play.

"North played a perfect game," said Durr. "We were a little slow in the first half. When the game was tied at 1-1 their goalie made two point blank saves."

"I told the team after the game that this was a good wake-up call," he continued. "It's a good thing that we were down and we'll be a better team for it. You have to be ready to play every day. Fortunately and unfortunately, we put ourselves in the position by our ranking and our undefeated season. North came in with not a lot to lose and competed and there they were with 35 minutes left up 1-0."

Molly Bojanek made six saves in net/

Piemonte was the key offensively for East early in the South game. She scored back-to-back goals at the 10and 15-minute mark of the first half. Jenny Griffin assisted on Piemonte's first goal; Morgante and Neha Bakhai chipped in on her second. Morgante gave East a 3-0 advantage after she beat South goalie Ashley Ashcroft on a corner kick unassisted and left-footed into the far post from 30 yards away.

South cut into East's lead when Emily Novak got loose and beat Bojanek short side. It was the Lady Billies' second shot of the game. Bojanek finished with four saves.

Jessica Kowalski scored the Lady Flames' fourth goal ten minutes into the second half from Quenneville and Jenny Griffin.

"I think South is a lot better than what people give them credit for," said Durr. "It doesn't matter how good you are (when we play each other). We're going to compete, they're going to compete."

Piemonte, Jenny Griffin, Durden and Erin Boyd (first career goal) allowed East to a 4-0 halftime lead over Lake Shore on Sept. 15. Jessica Kowalski, Piemonte and Beth Kaiser (first career goal) also tallied. Bojanek made five saves. The game was played at Maple East Elementary because the field was underwater thanks to heavy rainfall the day prior.

Two Piemonte goals sandwiched in by a Jessica Kowalski pushed East to a 3-0 halftime advantage against West Seneca East on Sept. 13. Piemonte scored seven minutes into the second half. West Seneca East's only goal came when a East player illegally used her hand to dribble the ball and it hit the far post and past Bojanek, who only had to make two saves.

Kowalski scored 14 minutes in against Amherst on a rainy night road game on Sept. 12. Sommer scored her first goal of the season six minutes later. Piemonte scored two second-half goals, the first from Quenneville and Kendra Durden, the second from Kaiser and Jenny Griffin. Bojanek made five saves.

"It was a good experience for us to play on their turf again," said Durr. "The goal for the kids is to get back there, which means we would be playing in the sectional finals."

Against Iroquois on Sept. 7, Piemonte scored the only goal of the first half from Durden and Jessica Kowalski.

"In the first half, we played a little shaky defensively," said Durr. "Iroquois had three breakaways and Molly (Bojanek) stopped two of them and deflected a shot wide. It was 1-0 at halftime but it could have been 1-1, 2-1, 3-1 in Iroquois' favor."

The Lady Flames bounced back from the slow start, scoring three goals in the first 12 minutes of the second half (Jessica Kowalski, Quenneville, Jenny Griffin). Piemonte added her second goal with 20 minutes left in regulation. Bojanek finished with nine saves. Coincidentally, Iroquois' only league loss has been to East.

East hosts Hamburg and Sweet Home Wednesday and Friday. The East JV team is 6-1, including six straight wins.