Blair girls soccer suffers tough home loss

The Blair Blazers (6-6) lost at home to the Richard Montgomery Rockets (5-3) by a score of 3-0. The Blazers were unable to get their offense going, managing only a handful of shots on goal throughout the game.

The Rockets were knocking on the door from an early stage, taking a long shot on goal in the sixth minute, which was saved by Blair senior goalkeeper Madeline Burke. This would not be the only action of the night for Burke, as the attack-minded Richard Montgomery squad put more chances on net.

In the 16th minute, after two more shots on goal and two more saves by Burke, the Rockets finally scored off of a long through ball from the midfield. Blair was not able to counter, having trouble getting any shots off against the strong Richard Montgomery defense.

Richard Montgomery found the net again with two minutes remaining in the first half, a strong header off of a corner kick to the back post. This sent the Blazers into halftime with a 2-0 deficit. According to Burke, the team needs to be more aggressive and work together as a team. "We have to work on stepping to the ball, and we have to work on making our passes connect, because we really couldn't communicate out there tonight," said Burke.

Blair came out of the halftime break looking strong, but quickly returned to the back foot. Richard Montgomery scored a second goal off of a corner kick in the 47th minute, bringing their lead to three.

The Rockets sought to put Blair well and truly out of reach with another shot three minutes later, but Burke parried the ball away. This would be Richard Montgomery's final shot of the match, giving way to a few scoring attempts by Blair which amounted to too little, too late.

Sophomore striker Nina Jefferies contributed to one of those attempts, dribbling past the back four and earning a one on one chance against the keeper for the Rockets, but a nice save kept Blair off the scoreboard.

According to Jefferies, the Blazers still have a lot to work on moving forward. "We still need to work on playing as a team and passing the ball, but as soon as we get that stuff down I'm really looking forward to playoffs," explained Jefferies.

According to head coach Robert Gibb, one specific thing the team has to work on is defending against set pieces. "Our big issue today was that they scored two corner kicks against us, and I don't know what the issue was, as we've defended well on set pieces so far this season," said Gibb.

Blair girls' soccer has a lot of strong play which they have yet to show supporters says Gibb. "This was not the best we can play, and in playoffs I feel confident about our chances against this team and others," he said.