The girls again competed in three leagues this Spring 2009 season, MSSL, JAGS and Northern Counties (NCSA). 

MSSL

Our MSSL schedule is very competitive, and we host  American Stars and Stripes, Paramus Castoffs, Cherry Hill Freedom and Voorhees Avengers.  We travel to play NJSA 04 Rush and Stroudsburg (PA).  

Cherry Hill FC Freedom 4, Blaze 0.  The Blaze opened the season against the Cherry Hill Freedom in an opening day MSSL match in Hillsborough.  March 8 is very early to be starting a spring season, and the game had the feel of a preseason warmup game.  Coming together for the first time since their championship at the West Deptford tournament last Thanksgiving, the Blaze looked like they had a lot of winter cobwebs in the first half, falling behind by a score of 3-0.  But, the workout began to pay off as they played virtually even with the Freedom in the second half, dropping the final decision by a score of 4-0.

Blaze 2, Paramus Spartans Castoffs 1.  Lots and lots of good solid play today, as the team got by the Paramus Castoffs by a 2-1 score.  Heather Keubler scored in the first half, and Tessa Kettelcamp score in the second.  Paramus had their chances, putting the ball over the crossbar four times.  But as the game progressed, the Blaze asserted more and more control until finally they were virtually playing keep-away in the last ten minutes.  Lots of accolades to the defenders and midfielders for taking the possession away from the Castoffs, and to all players for stepping up and winning the majority of 50/50 balls. The Paramus score came on a mildly disputed goal in the last minute.  Several Fireballs little sisters were in attendance, bringing good luck to the team!

Voorhees SA Avengers 5, Blaze 0.  The Avengers visited Hillsborough on May 16th, and took this game away from the Blaze by a lopsided score of 5-0.

Blaze 3, Stoudsburg United SC (PA) AC 3.  The girls fell behind quickly in this one up in the Poconos on Saturday May 30th.  Stroudsburg scored within 2 minutes of the opening of the game.  Alyssa Giarrusso responded with a direct kick which clanged off the left post and into the net.  Julie DiAlfonso later took a feed up the right side and outran her defender to the goalmouth, putting the Blaze up 2-1 by halftime.  With the ball too often ending up in the middle of the defensive part of the field in the second half, Stroudsburg leapfrogged to a 3-2 lead.  As time ran out, Giarrusso scored the game tying goal off a corner kick, and the game ended 3-3.

American SC Stars and Stripes 4, Blaze 0.  This was a game in which the team had an opportunity to measure its progress from last September's 7-1 drubbing to the present.  While there remains room for improvement, the team played a far superior game in this second meeting of the year. This game appeared far closer than a 4-0 score seemed to indicate.

JAGS

In the schedule for Jersey Area Girls Soccer (JAGS),  we have drawn EIGHT games against many teams we've seen before, including the Marlboro Blue Sparks, SSC Raiders, Freehold United, Manalapan Jaguars and the West Windsor-Plainsboro Xtreme.  Newcomers for us include Marlton Pressure, Logan Charge (they have a great website!) and the Jackson Freedom, (a side trip to Great Adventure perhaps?!!)  

Logan Charge 2, Blaze 0.  The Blaze opened their JAGS season at home, losing to the Logan Charge 2-0.  The Charge played a formation which the Blaze don't usually see,  and much of the game was spent making formation adjustments to compensate.  The Blaze did have many scoring chances in the second half as the changes began to take effect, but could not convert them into goals.

Blaze 3, SSC Raiders 1. This game featured good ball control throughout. Nevertheless, the SSC Raiders took a 1-0 lead off a corner kick just ten minutes into the game.  They held onto that lead despite many scoring opportunities for the Blaze.  Finally, after 62 minutes of soccer, (and just 8 minutes remaining) the Blaze found the back of the net.  Julie DiAlfonso placed the ball onto the left foot of Tessa Kettelkamp, who put the ball by the keeper to draw the score even. With four minutes left in the game, Alyssa Giarrusso put a long feed up the middle to Rachel Chavkin who put the ball in the net.  And with 40 seconds left, Giarrusso drilled a direct kick by the left sideline from 30 yards out, and Kettelkamp put her head onto the ball and directed it into the net.  This brings the lifetime series with SSC to a dead heat, with a record of two wins, two losses and a tie, while each team has scored nine goals.

Marlton Pressure 2, Blaze 0.  It was a hot time down in Marlton, with record setting temperatures dominating the game just when the Blaze end up with only one player on the bench.  Nevertheless, this was a well played game against a team we'd love to see on the pitch again someday. 

Freehold United 2, Blaze 1.  An injured depleted Blaze squad travelled over to Freehold to play the United, a team which has been evenly matched with the Blaze in several previous games.  The closeness of the squads was evident as Tessa Kettelkamp tied up the game with a goal to make the score 1-1.  With just minutes left, though, Freehold scored to take the game.

Blaze 2, Manalapan Jaguars 1.  The Blaze jumped out to an early lead and held on to win the front end of a doubleheader afternoon on the High School turf field. 

Blaze 2, Marlboro Blue Sparks 1.  In an unusual Thursday evening contest, the Blaze and Blue Sparks played for a second time this Spring after the Blaze topped this opponent by the tightest of scores in State Cup play, 1-0, back in March.  This time around, Sabrina Rodrigues started things off with a cross from the right corner to Tessa Kettelkamp in front of the goal.  In a melee, Kettelkamp got off a shot on goal which the goaltender was unable to swat away until after it had crossed the goal line.  In a defensive lapse by the Blaze early in the second half, the Blue Sparks knotted up the score, 1-1. With fifteen minutes left in the match, Lisa Grohn overmatched a defender inside the goalie box, and drew the defender into committing a penalty.  Kristian Wasdick converted the ensuing penalty kick, and the Blaze held on to win 2 - 1.

Blaze 1, Jackson Freedom 1.  In the back end of a doubleheader on Saturday May 16th, the Blaze travelled right past Great Adventure and found themselves in a tough game against the Jackson Freedom.  As it turned out, the team heading north dominated the game.  Jackson went that direction in the first half, and kept up pressure around the Blaze goal the entire half.  Their loan goal, though, came off a wind-aided corner kick which literally bent into the goal.  In the second half, the Blaze kept the pressure around the Freedom goal.  With quick thinking and quick feet, Tessa Kettelkamp reached the ball first in a melee in front of the net and scored to tie the game.

NCSA 

For the Spring, we now switch from Philadelphia Area Girls Soccer (PAGS) to the PREMIERE Division of Northern Counties Soccer Association (NCSA). PAGS is a Fall-only league, and NCSA will be a Spring-only league for us.  This league will provide us with 10 regular season games.  5 home and 5 away.  We are familiar with the Midland Park Ajax whom we've now played four times, but the balance of the schedule will be against four other teams we've never played before.

Montvale Arsenal 4  Blaze 2.  The Blaze opened their NCSA season with an away game on beautiful turf fields in Montvale, NJ. This was a rocky game with many defensive lapses.  However, the team's passing still looked sharp, and on another day the outcome could have been very different.

Blaze 2, RYSA (Oakland) Wildcats 2.  The Blaze opened this game very flat, and could not seem to put their passing game together or effectively mark their opponents.  As a result, the team was down 2-0 by halftime.  After our little sister Fireballs team arrived to support the Blaze, the game turned.  The Blaze scored two second half goals.  Allie Prosinski crossed a ball from left forward over to Katerina Albanese at striker for the first goal.  Abby Seel converted a penalty kick for the second goal.

Blaze 2, Northern Valley (Old Tappan) 2.  Perhaps looking forward to a State Cup game the next day, the Blaze was not firing on all cylinders.  Northern Valley arrived with no substutues and played an inspired game for a team that should have been exhausted by the end of the game.  Lisa Grohn scored twice for the Blaze.

Blaze 0 , Midland Park Ajax 0.  The Ajax is the most familiar team in NCSA to the Blaze, having met them in State Cup, Parsippany Tournament and JAGS play.  It's almost inevitable that two teams who know one another well enough will learn to negate one another's strengths.  The two teams played to a scoreless tie in the back end of a Blaze double header on the High Scool turf field. 

Blaze 4,  Northern Valley (Old Tappan) 4.  Playing into the teeth of strong winds, the Blaze failed to move the ball effectively into scoring position throughout the first half.  Meanwhile, Northern Valley used the wind to their advantage, sending long balls into their offensive zone and creating sudden defensive mismatches.  The Blaze found themselves in a 2-0 hole at halftime.  With the Blaze back on their heels, the mismatches and zone flooding continued in the second half as well, and the Blaze gave up another quick pair of goals and the team fell behind by a 4-0 score.  But there was no quit in this team on this day.  A cross from Anchi Numfor at left forward found Alyssa Giarrusso alone in front of the net for an easy tap in with 25 minutes left in the game.  7 minutes later with 18 minutes left in the game Lauren Wendeborn landed a throw-in at Giarrusso's feet near the right corner.  With two quick cuts, Giarrusso freed herself from her defender and drilled an 18 yard shot into the top right corner to cut the lead in half.  The third goal is almost a complete news article by itself.  With nine minutes left to go,  Wendeborn moved the ball to Giarrusso, who passed it to Lauren Sochacki, who delivered it to Tessa Kettelkamp in the goal mouth, who reloaded the ball out to Allie Prosinski on the left, who delivered the ball forward across the goal mouth to Kettelkamp on the right of the keeper, who again changed direction and placed the ball into the goal near the left post.  And it happened so fast it was like watching a pinball game. Finally, with just one minute left in the match, Numfor delivered a long throw-in into the goalie box.  Many feet got to touch the ball, but the strong leg of Julie DiAlfonso won out and the ball popped up and spun just out of reach of the goalkeeper to tie the game at 4-4.  In the play, the keeper was shaken up, so when play resumed the referee immediately blew his whistle to end the game.

Blaze 2, Montvale Arsenal  1.  Tessa Kettelkamp scored in the first half, and Allie Prosinski scored in the second half to give the Blaze a 2-1 victory over the Arsenal in HIllsborough.

 Blaze 3,  RYSA (Oakland) Wildcats 1.  Rachel Chavkin pushed a leading ball up the middle to Lauren Wendeborn, who raced 35 yards with the ball and then beat the keeper to open the scoring for the Blaze.  The duo later paired up again for the final tally, reversing roles as Wendeborn fed a pass to Chavkin who beat the keeper for the third Blaze goal.  In between, Lauren Sochacki nailed a direct kick.  The Wildcats scored late in the first half, keeping the game tied at 1-1 at halftime before Sochacki and Chavkin put the game away with their second half goals.:

Midland Park Ajax  Rained out TWICE and cancelled.

Dragons United (Westwood) Ten girls braved a complete mudbowl up in Westwood, falling behind 4-0 and failing to complete one of those famous Blaze cardiac kids comebacks by only scoring two goals by Allison Prosinski to fall by a score of 4-2.

Dragons United (Westwood) Rained out TWICE and cancelled.