PETERBOROUGH — Entering Monday’s Division II girls soccer game at ConVal, Fiona Nolan had scored two goals all season.
The St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore more than doubled that total, netting a hat trick in the second half to power the Saints to a 5-2 victory. Her performance earned her Monday’s Seacoast Standout Athlete of the Day honors.
Fiona Nolan
St. Thomas coach Patrick Hureau described Nolan’s effort as “incredible.”
Advertisement
“She’s a player that has an unlimited motor,” Hureau said. “She plays as hard in the first 10 minutes as the last 10 minutes, and she’s always creating opportunities for us.”
Nolan now has five goals and four assists this season. Hureau expected this kind of breakout campaign after watching her develop as the Saints’ starting attacking midfielder as a freshman.
“She was our playmaker last year as a freshman,” Hureau said. “She scored some goals and had some good assists, but I figured in her sophomore season she would really break out and start to contribute even more offensively, where she’s scoring goals and setting other people up.”
The Saints faced an uphill battle after falling behind 2-1 at halftime.
Advertisement
“In the first half, we were collectively slow, not communicating and not playing our style of soccer,” Hureau said. “It’s tough on a Monday having not practiced for two days and having played on Friday. Last week we had two really tough opponents, so collectively we were not sharp to start the game.”
St. Thomas responded with four second-half goals, three coming from Nolan.
“We weren’t communicating, and we weren’t pressuring them when they had the ball,” Hureau said. “At halftime there was a bit of a reckoning by the coaches and captains, and we were very different.”
Hureau said Nolan’s finest goal came on an assist from Reagan Markey.
Advertisement
“It was just a perfect pass,” Hureau said. “Fiona beat the defenders, got a foot on the ball and placed it perfectly.”
The victory improved St. Thomas Aquinas to 3-2-1 on the season
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Monday Seacoast Standout: St. Thomas sophomore nets second-half hat trick
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
