By Andy Hutchison

NEWTOWN — The goals came early and, in the first half, often. No. 12 Staples girls soccer built a commanding 3-0 lead at halftime en route to a 4-0 triumph over No. 5 Newtown in the second round of the Class LL State Tournament on Tuesday.

Any 4-0 victory is one to be proud of, but the nature of this one, the way in which the Wreckers worked the ball to find the net, made it particularly rewarding for the Wreckers.

“It was a great performance. The quality of the goals — it was exactly what we work on in practice,” Staples Coach Barry Beattie said. “Quick ball movement, sharp combination play. We couldn’t be happier as coaches.”

Alexa Van Aken got the scoring started in the opening minutes, assisted by Maddie Johnson. Van Aken netted another after taking a pass from Riely Gullans after Gullans made a nice pull-back move and crossed to her left. Van Aken clanked a perfectly-placed shot off the left post and in for a 2-0 lead midway through the opening half.

Toni Rizza scored late in the opening half. Maddie Gray set up Sami Selig in the second half.

The Wreckers visit No. 4 Amity of Woodbridge in the quarterfinals Saturday at 1 p.m. Amity outlasted No. 13 Trumbull (one of Staples’ FCIAC foes) 2-1 in double overtime.

The winner draws either top seed Farmington or No. 8 New Canaan (a 1-0 winner over fellow FCIAC team and No. 9 seed St. Joseph of Trumbull) in the semis.

Andy Hutchison

^{_{Andy Hutchison has been covering school sports — including Staples athletics — as well as news and feature stories, since the 1990s. He is the sports editor at the Newtown Bee. He writes for the Monroe Sun. He was director of communications and radio color commentator for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (now Islanders) hockey team. He has won numerous writing awards, including regional and national first-place honors.}}