The Danvers Girls Varsity Soccer Team played their Home opener Friday night against defending league champion, Masconomet.  In front of a large crowd, the Falcons were ready for their toughest opponent on their schedule in only game 2 of the season.

 

Masco came out of the box flying from the opening whistle.  Masco's experienced team of mostly upperclassmen passed the ball extremely well using 1 and 2 touch up the field.  However, it was the hosts cashing in on their first offensive attempt that provided the games first goal.  Junior Georgia Prouty took a pass from classmate Gianna Sutherland and calmly passed it into the back of the Masco net for the 1 goal lead, 8 minutes into the game.

 

"Georgia is capable of delivering that kind of offense at any point of any game.  She's that explosive and dangerous of a player."  "That goal was huge, but we certainly weren't playing well at that point.  Masco was all over us."

 

Masconomet continued to dominate possession and put the pressure on Danvers.  Junior goalkeeper Maddie Demboski made several huge saves to keep the game 1-0 in her Team's favor.  However, in the 20th minute Masco finally got on the score board.  Junior winger, Amanda Schneider scored her first of the game to tie the score.  Danvers continued to battle through the remainder of the half with sophomore center back Addi McCarty making several defensive stops and Demboski making a total of 8 saves.  But with under 5 minutes remaining, senior captain Lauren Boughner tucked her shot inside the near post to give the Chieftan's the 2-1 lead going into the half.

 

"We played timid.  We're a super young Team and it seemed as if we were a bit intimidated by them that whole first half.  They were first to every ball on the field and they exploited space with simple 2 touch passing and creative movement.  We felt if we could pick up the intensity, start competing for 50 / 50 balls and pressure them more we could change the flow of the game in the second half."

 

Danvers changed their formation and style of play going into the second half and it instantly produced some offensive opportunities.  11 minutes in, sophomore Liv St. Pierre sent Prouty through the defense up the left side of the field.  Prouty was double teamed and made a beautiful square pass to sophomore Lila Doucette.  Doucette hit the ball with authority and her shot beat the Masco keeper to even things up.

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"That was so unselfish of Georgia.  Their defense closed on her quickly and she found Lila making a run.  It was a beautiful goal."

 

Unfortunately it took the visitors only 2 minutes to go back up again.  Once again it was Amanda Schneider, this time on a hard, bending shot from distance that looked to be screened.  Danvers fought hard the second half and had it's best chance when a loose ball came out to left back, sophomore Lila Flynn who one timed it at the Masco net.  Her long, looping shot went just over the crossbar.

 

With under a minute and Danvers still scrambling to try and tie the game, senior mid, Sam Schena was able to get an insurance goal, propelling the visitors to a 4-2 win.

 

"Maddie Demboski made 21 saves tonight against a high flying offense.  She really stepped up.  We struggled in that first half but certainly turned it around in the second.  We didn't play pretty soccer but we played with more emotion and more intensity and it gave us some chances.  I think we only had 4 or 5 shots on net the entire game so give Masco a lot of credit for that."

 

"Lila Doucette had a fantastic game for us tonight.  I asked her to play out of her normal forward position some tonight and she was up to the challenge.  She played outside back, center back and her usual attacking positions and did exceptionally well at all of them.  I also felt defender Lila Flynn had a strong game, playing aggressive defense."

 

"We're young with lots of talent but we still need to build up our depth.  It's tough to create that against such a high level team like Masco but I feel we will over time.  We'll use this game as a learning experience and I feel we'll be stronger in the long run because of it."

 

With a record of 1-1 Danvers has the weekend off, but will return to action Monday night at 6:30 when they host Gloucester.