It was Danvers Youth Soccer night Wednesday night at Dr. Deering Stadium with a slew of Danvers 3rd graders in attendance to be recognized and celebrated before the Varsity Girl's Soccer game vs. Swampscott.  Each player, dressed in their DYS jersey marched out with a varsity player during the pre-game announcements.  At halftime, the youngsters participated in small sided games on the center of the turf.  It was an exciting night for the Future Falcons.

 

Once the game started it was all business and Swampscott came intent on ruining the party.  With only a little over a minute played, a Swampscott attacker got through the Danvers defense on the right side of the field and sent a cross to the left side of the field, where freshman, Mia Bailey was wide open.  She sent a perfect shot past goalkeeper Maddie Dembowski for the early lead on the hosts.

 

"That's about the worst start that we could have had and they capitalized.  With all the pre-game hype surrounding the game things felt a little off tonight and I don't think we were fully focused.  Swampscott came out on fire."

 

Swampscott continued to put Danvers on their heels applying pressure early and often.  The Falcons seemed to play very defensively and tentative throughout the early stages of the game.  However, in the 12th minute of action, junior Georgia Prouty broke up the left side of the field and sent a perfect ball across the box on the ground to senior, Krysta Zamejtis.  The captain made the most of her opportunity and finished for the goal tying the score.

 

"At that point it was a bit of a relief.  OK, we weathered the storm and have now tied it up.  We were thinking, lets play our game now."

 

That was hardly the case as only 4 minutes later Swampscott was rewarded with a direct kick from about 25 yards out.  Freshman, Greta Siefken hit a rocket into the upper left corner of the Danvers net to regain the lead.  Once again stunned, the Danvers Girls begun to pick up their level of play.  However, Swampscott's aggressive play and relentless pressure made things extremely difficult.  With only 4 minutes remaining in the half, junior Brooke Wynott scored on a nicely placed shot to tie the score once again.  The goal was assisted by Prouty.  Despite a few late chances, the score remained 2-2 at halftime.

 

"That was not a good half of soccer for us.  Swampscott was dictating the pace of the game and we came out flat from the opening whistle.  I take full responsibility as we didn't look ready pre-game like we normally do."

 

The game went back and forth throughout the second half with Danvers definitely getting the better of the chances.  The Falcons had 5 second half corners but couldn't get a shot on frame from them.  Danvers got strong play from mids Prouty and Liv St. Pierre but the Team just couldn't click inside the Swampscott zone.  Sophomore forward, Lila Doucette and sophomore back, Addi McCarty did well to bring up the intensity on the field with their solid play.  As time ticked away, the pressure mounted and Swampscott's defense bore down.  When the final whistle blew with the game tied 2-2, the visiting Big Blue celebrated the upset tie with the favored Falcons.  

 

"We just didn't have it tonight.  Give that young Swampscott Team credit.  They were hungry and they wanted the upset bad.  They took us out of our playing style and we struggled.  When we relaxed and moved the ball quickly, we looked good.  However, most of the time we were panicking and giving the ball away.  We got tremendous play from senior captain, Molly Godfried tonight.  She played all 80 minutes extremely well and she's been sick this week.  Her communication on the field was great.  DeAnna Figueiredo also had a terrific game.  We played her out of her normal position because we were chasing the go ahead goal and we wanted to get attack from her out of the back.  She was definitely one of our strong points tonight."

 

Danvers will have very little time to rest as they travel to Lynnfield Saturday morning for a 10:00 non-league game against a very strong Team.  Danvers record is now 7-2-1 on the season.