Youth soccer
Rovers U12 tame Condors, 9-1

The Amherst Rovers girls U12 soccer team led the Clarence Condors, 3-0, at halftime and went on an offensive onslaught to win, 9-1, on June 25.

Amherst withstood a flurry of pressure from Clarence toward the end of the first half thanks to the excellent goaltending of Julia Struble.

The Rovers came out with renewed vigor in the second half, scoring two goals early. Clarence scored to make it 4-1, but Amherst answered four more times to turn it into a rout.

Mia Lafornaya set the stage for the Rovers, scoring three of the team's first four goals. Courtney Sugarman scored twice, powering it through the goalie for Amherst's fifth tally and spinning and scoring after taking a pass right in front for the team's last goal.

Meredith Parenti adroitly controlled a crossing pass and sent a beautiful shot over the goalie's arm into the side of the net. Allie Troncone beat several defenders and the goalie when she dribbled all the way to the net from midfield to make it 6-1. Julia Struble showed amazing closing speed on a ball coming across the field for the Rovers' seventh goal. Audrey Parenti intercepted a goal kick, beat a defender to get in close and sent a shot high into the side of the net to make it 8-1. Joy Thompson beat Clarence players several times with good footwork and created scoring chances with some nice passing.

Defensively, Colleen Stelley came out of nowhere several times to break up plays deep in Amherst's end, saving the day when the attackers had beaten Amherst defenders.

Sarah Snyder was an impenetrable wall on defense, turning Clarence attackers away again and again, whichever way she was going.

Kali James broke up several attacks near midfield and harassed charging Clarence players, running them right out of bounds.

Julia Newton delayed advancing Clarence players until help could arrive, once kicking the ball away on the ground. Chelsea Stachura disrupted some determined Clarence attacks late in the first half.