Three different Falcons – Becca Cameron, Taylor Rinaldi and Allison Greuel – notched two goals apiece in Freeport’s bout with visiting NYA on Friday afternoon. The Panthers, struggling this season and playing down a man to top it all off, couldn’t muster a response all game, but had obvious fun nevertheless.

Freeport head coach Elayna Girardin was satisfied with her squad’s play, regardless of the advantage they had, being a man up.

“What we’ve been working on is creating more runs and more on-attack,” Girardin said. “We really worked on that today, and I felt our movement up top was a lot better than it has been. We were able to take some chances that we’ve been nervous to take, even though we should be able to take them any game.”

NYA simply didn’t have the bodies to fully populate the field. Among the Panthers’ missing players is their starting keeper – meaning a rotation of girls tried their hand in net as the action progressed.

Last but not least among those was senior Captain Anna Laprise, who, despite giving up points to the Falcons, showed no signs of low spirits. In fact, the entire NYA squad displayed laudable enthusiasm throughout the loss, picking each other up when they were down, maintaining broad smiles and shouting encouragement back and forth.

Said freshman Isabella Coleman, perfectly upbeat: “The scoreboard doesn’t reflect how we played!” Meaning, of course, that she and her girls played happy and hard, even if they lost in the end.

Cameron opened the scoring early, just four and a half minutes into play, on an assist by Jessie Driscoll. Rinaldi added her first 25 minutes later (with help from Olivia Alterio), and her second midway through the latter half (with help from Jemayla Nelsonwood).

Rinaldi assisted on the next two goals – Greuel’s first, which came with 19:56 to play, and Cameron’s second, at 10 minutes even – and Greuel closed Freeport’s attack out at 7:07, this time unassisted. 6-0 the final.

“We’ve been working on a lot of offense,” said Girardin, “and they finally got to put it to use.”

Cameron heaped praise on fellow scorers Rinaldi and Greuel. “We have some people injured right now, so Taylor, who’s also a sophomore, has just filled in the center-mid, and she also had two goals and two assists. She’s doing a great job of seeing people.

“We pulled up Allison Greuel, who’s a freshman,” Cameron said. “This is her first varsity game and also had two goals. So we played really well as a team, and everybody played a part. Till the end, we were still working.”

The Falcons, suffering their own share of struggles this fall, jump to 2-6-1. Freeport is currently ranked 14th in B South, a couple slots outside the playoffs bracketing. Gray-New Gloucester (4-4-1) sits in 13th, and Wells (2-6) occupies 15th. The Falcons traveled south to take on the Warriors on Monday, Oct. 5, after the Tri-Town Weekly’s print deadline.

“They were feeling like, ‘We could try this,’” Girardin said of her girls’ ramped-up attack. “I think that’ll help us in our next week, because we’ve got some big games coming up.”

NYA, 12th in C South (and one place outside the posteason), drops to 1-9. The Panthers’ lone (thus far) win came on Sept. 25th, against Pine Tree Academy. They next face off with Lake Region, a road game slated for Thursday the 8th.

Can the Falcons take a confidence boost away from a game they won while playing entirely a man up?

“I think so,” said Girardin. “Before and after games, we say, ‘It’s not always about whether we win by a lot, not a lot, lose by a lot, whatever.’ I want them playing good soccer. They’re getting more confident because they felt like they were playing good soccer.”

“We needed it,” said Cameron. “Because we really haven’t scored many goals this whole year. It was good that we had that boost of confidence, to take shots and have multiple people score. Also, playing the possession game is really what you should be doing when you’re a man up, because somebody is always going to be open.”

Freeport’s Olivia Greuel shunts the ball away as NYA’s Sydney Gilman charges in.Freeport’s Allison Greuel, seen here working around NYA’s Isabelle Coleman, scored two of the Falcons’ six goals in their win over the visiting Panthers on Friday.Freeporter Allison Greuel, who had two goals in Friday’s game, peeks just far enough around NYA’s Isabelle See to rip a shot on net.Freeporter Taylor Rinaldi splits a pair of NYA opponents – Acacia Bright (left) and Anna Hoffman-Johnson (right) – on her way toward the Panthers’ net, Friday afternoon.Amber Smith cleats the ball ahead for Freeport in their 6-0 win over NYA on Friday.NYA freshman Isabelle Coleman latches onto senior and Captain Anna Laprise after their team’s loss to Freeport on Friday. The Panthers played happy and hard, despite getting walloped.