November 4, 2023
Danvers 6 - St. Mary's 1

The Danvers Girls Soccer Team finished their regular season 13-3-2 and were awarded with the #9 seed in the Div. 3 State Tournament.  24th seed St. Mary's beat 41st seed Revere 7-1 in the preliminary game resulting in them traveling to Danvers on Saturday afternoon for a round 1 match up with the Falcons.  This was Danvers first tournament game ever in Div. 3.  

"We had some great practices leading up to this game so I felt strongly that the girls were ready.  The tournament is such an awesome time of the year and I know the players were itching to get started."

Danvers came out flying right off the opening whistle.  A few early shots missed and the Danvers defense did well to keep St. Mary's away from their end of the field.  Goalkeeper Maddie Dembowski made a save early on a shot from distance by St. Mary's.  Danvers defender, Lila Flynn made a nice defensive stop on a near breakaway as well. Then, in the 13th minute, Danvers was awarded a corner kick.  Junior, Brooke Wynott took the kick and it was received by junior Georgia Prouty.  Prouty played the ball back to Wynott and she blasted a ball into the upper corner of the net for the goal.  With the assist, Prouty attained her 100th career point on the play.

"That was a huge moment in the game.  Brooke's shot was beautiful and we needed that spark.  Plus, it was Georgia's 50th point of the season and also her career 100th.  Getting 50 points in a season is a major accomplishment that not many players can accomplish.  And, to hit 100 career points in your junior season is near unheard of.  I'm super happy for Georgia and her Family.  Her teammates were thrilled for her."

The goal certainly sparked the Falcons but St. Mary's did not go away.  They continued to pressure Danvers and Dembowski continued to make the needed saves.  She made 10 in all throughout the first half.  Danvers got great defensive play from sophomore DeAnna Figueiredo who did a fine job slowing down St. Mary's top scoring threat.  Ashley Freitas played extremely well making a number of difficult defensive tackles and distributing passes to her open teammates.  Despite 9 quality shots on net by the Falcons, the game stayed 1-0 into halftime.

"We were playing well, but there were a few miscues here and there that we wanted to clean up.  I felt we could get to a higher level of play in the second half."

The second half started with a bang with the hosts looking like they'd double their lead to giving up the lead completely.  Less than 2 minutes in, Georgia Prouty sent a long diagonal ball over the St. Mary's defense where Brooke Wynott collected it.  She crushed a shot that the Spartan goalkeeper made the save on.  The ball played off of the goalkeeper right towards the back post where sophomore Lila Doucette was making a run.  Doucette's attempt on net went just wide leaving the score 1-0.  On the ensuing goal kick, a St. Mary's midfielder collected the ball at her own 20 yard line and sent a bomb over the Danvers defense giving a Spartan forward a clean break on the Danvers goal.  Dembowski had no chance at saving the break away shot and all of the sudden the game was even.

"That was a major moment in the game.  We missed an excellent scoring opportunity and then they came back seconds later and tied it up.  Our entire defense was completely out of position on that goal and it cost us."

With the game now even, it seemed as though a sense of urgency now hit the Falcons as they attacked relentlessly.  The defense tightened things up and St. Mary's never really had another dangerous opportunity.  Probably the best opportunity came in the 10th minute but sophomore center back, Addi McCarty was able to clear a near, break away chance away.  Finally, in the 12th minute of play, Krysta Zamejtis sprung Georgia Prouty of the left side with a great through pass.  The junior calmly made a perfect pass to her right that found teammate Lila Doucette.  Doucette's shot was spot on for the go ahead goal.

2 minutes later the Falcons struck again.  Sophomore, Ashley Freitas played a pass to junior, Gianna Sutherland who in turn put a perfect pass between the St. Mary's defenders.  Prouty ran onto the pass full speed and into a break away.  She calmly right footed the ball past the oncoming goalie and gave the Falcons the 3-1 lead.

"Both of the goals were gorgeous, and both were initiated by terrific punts from Maddie Dembowski.  Both times she hit it roughly 50 yards and we made something out of it.  Krysta's field vision to see Georgia making that run was outstanding and Lila taking the time to place her shot perfectly was brilliant.  Gianna's pass to Georgia on the second goal was perfectly weighted and hit her right in stride.  Those 2, back to back goals completely changed the game for us."

From that point on, the game appeared one sided as Danvers stayed in control.  Defensively the back line of Skylar Laws, Addi McCarty, Reese Holland and DeAnna Figueiredo stayed strong and nullified any further opportunities from the visitors.  Dembowski only needed to make 1 save the entire half.  Danvers continued to get solid midfield play from sophomores, Liv St. Pierre and Freitas along with senior captain, Molly Godfried.  Danvers nearly added another as a crossing ball to freshman, Emma Sutherland just missed.  However, in the 22nd minute of play, the Falcons put the game away for good.  Liv St. Pierre collected a ball just outside the 18 yard box and hit a hard shot on net.  Her shot clanged off the left post but came back out to DeAnna Figueiredo who was coming forward.  The crafty sophomore beat 2 defenders off the dribble and passed the ball by the St. Mary's goalie for the 4th goal of the game.  In the 28th minute, the same 2 players were involved again.  Molly Godfried played a nice pass forward for Figueiredo to run onto.  She cut on a dime to beat her defender and laid a back pass to St. Pierre about 15 yards out.  Her shot stayed low and beat the Spartan keeper for the 5th goal for the Falcons.

"DeAnna was fantastic today.  She really stepped up for us defensively in both halves.  She took their best scoring threat out of the game with her speed, aggressiveness and skill.  Then, when we finally brought her back up to an attacking position, she scores and grabs an assist.  She was tremendous."

In the 34th minute of play, Danvers had another corner kick and ran a play that they've nearly scored on several times this year.  Georgia Prouty's cross found sophomore Addie Lamar who missed on her first shot attempt.  She then recovered and sent a hard pass to Krysta Zamejtis who was waiting about 5 yards from goal.  She settled the hard pass and crushed it into the far post corner to make the score 6-1.  For the remainder of the game, Danvers played in a different formation to solidify the win.  Reese Holland played well in the #6 role, Lila Doucette played steady on the back line and Sr., Liv Ferullo added skill at center and wide midfield positions.  When the final whistle blew, Danvers had a 6-1 win and would advance to round 2 of Div. 3.  They now await the winner of Monday's game with East Bridgewater traveling to Tantasqua.

"The girls played well today, especially in the second half.  It was a great team effort from everyone.  Winning in the tournament takes tons of grit and you have to be able to manage the high and low moments throughout the course of the game.  I think we did that very well today."

Danvers improved to 14-3-2 on the season.