The Noam Knights girls soccer team took on SAR this past Friday in the championship game. Both teams were coming off of impressive undefeated seasons. Just 16 seconds into the game, Noam eighth grader Tamar Feldman scored the opening goal, assisted by seventh grader Noa Acton. After this strong start, Noam continued to keep up the offensive pressure, but SAR’s defense and goalkeeper were an effective force and kept Feldman and Acton at bay.
In the second quarter, Noam came back even stronger, scoring three goals. The first was scored by eighth grader Daniella Fisher, off of seventh grader Riki Amos’ assist. The second was a result of pressure from Amos and eighth grader Adi Hirschkorn, and rebounded off of one of SAR’s players into the goal. The third came from a brilliant pass by Acton and finished with a beautiful top corner shot by sixth grader Daniella Fox, bringing the score to 4-0 at the half.
In the third quarter, Feldman immediately scored another goal, bringing the score to 5-0. Soon after, SAR came back with a powerful shot on goal, bringing the score to 5-1. Throughout the rest of the quarter, SAR applied pressure, led by Noa Schlaff Pearlberg, but Noam’s defense, led by Hirschkorn, Amos, and eighth grader Zahava Becker, shut down almost all of their plays quickly. When SAR did break through Noam’s defense, they were turned away by eighth grade goalkeeper Chana Isaacs, who has only given up six goals this entire season, never allowing more than one goal in any single game, and has made over 350 saves throughout the season.
In the fourth quarter, SAR and Noam took turns applying offensive pressure, but no goals were scored until Noam added one last insurance goal with 20 seconds remaining. Amos and eighth graders Orli Hirsch and Rosie Graaberd all applied pressure on the ball, taking several shots on goal, until Graaberd made a beautiful finish into the goal off of Amos’ rebound, Noam’s 65th goal of the season.
The final score was 6-1 Noam and the Knights brought home their second consecutive girls soccer championship, and their first ever undefeated girls soccer championship.