The Johnston girls soccer team is still searching for its first win of the season and fell to host Exeter-West Greenwich 10-1 on Tuesday to drop to 0-8 this season.
It has been tough sledding in the early going for the Panthers, who graduated most of their starting lineup from last season while also being elevated to a higher division. The Johnston roster includes only two seniors and three juniors, with underclassmen taking on the remainder of the roles. One of the bright spots for Johnston this season has been the emergence of junior Olivia Iafrate, who scored the team’s lone goal on Tuesday.
As the young players continue to grow, coach Toni Scavitti has been pleased with the progress they have made as they approach the midway point of the regular season.
“We have a lot of underclassmen playing big roles and we have some girls that are new to the sport. That being said, don’t let the scores fool you, we have seen tremendous improvement and the girls are really starting to pick up how we want to play,” said Scavitti, who has credited her small group of upperclassmen for their leadership during this transitional year. “They’ve stepped up. We don’t have many seniors, so it’s been on some juniors to step up too and they have in many ways. They’ve shown the girls how to play the game the have taught them the way it should be played.”
The Panthers will next be in action on Friday when they host St. Ray’s. Although the Panthers’ schedule will not ease up much, Scavitti is hopeful that the girls can make more improvements along the way and turn things around by season’s end.
“We just need to hopefully continue to improve the way we have. Work on our defense and keep the score lower than we did today and continue to progress,” Scavitti said.