STAC SOCCER: ELMIRA GIRLS SHUTOUT HORSEHEADS, 4-0 (24 PHOTOS) (2021-09-15)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
ELMIRA — It was a rainy, dark night, but the Elmira offense lit up the scoreboard early on their way to a 4-0 win over Horseheads in girls’ soccer action.

In their only loss this year the Express got off to a slow start against Notre Dame.

That wasn’t a problem on Wednesday as they found the next 10 minutes in and never looked back in a rivalry game.

“In that match we didn’t get a very good start,” Elmira coach Zach Sarno said. “That’s one of the things we preached to get better at, so we know that’s important and a staple of what we try to do, and when it doesn’t work you fall behind.”

For the Express they knew this game was extra important to get off to a strong start as Horseheads was coming off a big 1-0 overtime win against Corning in the first game in their new stadium, and on a night they remembered the life of former player Miranda Novitsky.

“To get a jump on them tonight was good,” Sarno said. “It’s always going to be a tough rivalry game for us. Both of us are coming off wins and for them it was obviously an emotional when when they were celebrating the life of Miranda and remembering her, and to get their first win at home like that, I’m sure they got a little momentum behind them. So, we knew that coming in they were going to come in with a little pep in their step so we knew getting off to a good start would mean that much more.”

Tierney Krawczyk hit a free kick 10 minutes in and Mia Capilli knocked it in for the first goal of the game.

Twenty minutes later the Express got another goal as Emily Hanrahan raced to get to a ball just before it crossed the end-line and crossed it over to Emily Klotz to make it 2-0.

In the second half it was Hanrahan scoring a pair of goals, one of them set up on a perfect through ball by Capilli.

For Elmira they expect big things from Hanrahan up front. However, they also know they need to have production from the other players, like they did Wednesday, to balance out their attack.

“Obviously people know Emily, and that’s great,” Sarno said. “And, we’ve had other great goal scorers over the years. We have been very blessed to have good strikers. But, we know you have to have somewhat of a balance and that balance is important and it’s good to find some people in the right spot.

“It’s good to see, Emily tracked that ball down and put off a good cross and it’s nice to find Emily Klotz in the right spot at the right time. You always tell the kids, you put yourself in front of the net and good things can happen. The ball came across and she basically had a tap in. The same thing with Tierney. Free kicks are dangerous and it’s good to see Mia get a tap in and put it in.”

While the offense was able to put Elmira on the board early, it was also a strong night for the defense, which recorded its second straight shutout.

“injuries have made us move some people around,” Sarno said. “Besides losing some key players like Ireland (Krawczyk) and Parker (Moss) last year, who were seniors and who were really the spine of our team for many years, we are still trying to find the people that fill in for those people and all of a sudden two of those people wound up going out hurt. So, it was weird, all of a sudden everything we had figured out int he preseason we had to reevaluate. After the Notre Dame game we reevaluated again after the weekend and we made some changes I thought eventually we may go to and now they are paying off with two shutouts in a row.”

The Elmira girls host a non-league game at 1:15 on Saturday when they welcome Liverpool to town.