With the soccer season barely a minute old, the Whitehall girls struck for their first goal of the season, a tally which stood up the rest of the way as they defeated Northampton in the opener.

That goal wouldn’t have been possible without the diving save of goalkeeper Grace Clary. A Northampton player was barreling down the field on a breakaway, and Clary came out to challenge the play, sprawling onto the ground to make the save.

That turn of events left the Northampton defenders scrambling to get back into position as Whitehall’s counter attack went into high gear. Erica Juliano played a long ball over the top that found Kate Bonshak who sent it to the back of the net for the game-winning goal.

It was Clary’s first start of her varsity career and the sophomore was immediately tested, responding with a huge save that helped earn her team their first win of the season.

“I was really nervous because it was my first varsity game, but once the game started I kind of calmed down,” said Clary. “A few scares, but all in all, it went pretty well.”

She showed poise throughout the game making a number of saves that kept the K-Kids off the scoreboard. Clary said that her length is a huge asset when patrolling the goal. She can raise high to nab corners which she did on two occasions, as well as cover a lot of ground from side to side.

Clary said her length also helps her when she dives for the ball which she demonstrated on a number of rushes from the Kids forward line.

“It really helps a lot,” she said.

While that frenzied first minute produced the games only goal, Whitehall head coach Chris Bleam said that he felt that they played into Northampton’s strength during the first half.

“They were collecting numbers behind the ball and we were playing a lot of short passes into the center part of the field and they were disrupted, and we needed to change that,” said Bleam. He said that they possessed the ball frequently during the first half, but they weren’t going anywhere. They had just one scoring chance in the first half.

“In the second half we tried to play some longer balls, and by nature you’re going to make some mistakes doing that, but it actually made us more dangerous,” said Bleam.

Bonshak was able to generate a couple more chances in the second half, but two tough hand ball calls nullified those opportunities.

Still, Bleam liked that they were able to keep the pressure on the Kids as they forced a lot of corners which they couldn’t accomplish in the first half.

Cassie Due also played a strong game, consistently clearing the ball out of harm’s way when Northampton tried to set up their offense.

Bleam said that they still have a lot of work to do as their younger players are still trying to figure out their roles.

Clary believes that their first win will be a springboard for the rest of the season, something that they want to carry over to practice as they prepare for a full slate of games this week.

“That’s going to help us as we prepare for those games,” said Clary.