The Danvers Varsity Girls Soccer Team traveled to Andover Tuesday night for their yearly Non-League match with Andover.  It was Andover's senior night and before the game, the Andover Coach presented the 8 Falcon seniors with a bouquet of flowers.  Andover came into the contest with a 6-2-2 record with their only losses to strong teams in Masco and Newton South.  Danvers was coming off of their only loss of the season at Masco last week.

 

The game started off back and forth while each team looked to adapt to the extremely fast turf.  Danvers was awarded a free kick only minutes into the game, but senior captain, Reese Pszenny's shot from 25 yards out bent just over the crossbar.The Danvers defense got a lot of action throughout the game with Andover playing a very direct, kick and run style of offense.  However, the Falcon backs were more than up for the challenge.  Senior captain, Emma Dunn did a fine job winning loose balls and clearing out anything dangerous.  Senior captain Gabby Chisholm was extremely effective at slowing Andover down and not giving them any offensive opportunities.  Junior outside backs Mikayla Shaffaval and Ryley Crosby were outstanding at beating their man to the ball time after time.

 

"Defensively we were very strong.  We only gave up 3 shots the whole half and only one of them was on net.  We had more trouble adjusting to the speed of the turf.  Our prior game was played on long, thick grass that was so slow for our team.  This field was the complete opposite.  The ball kept running out of bounds.  I think there must have been at least 30 or more throw ins in just the one half."

 

Senior Captain Arianna Bezanson scored the only goal the visitors would need with about 15 minutes to play in the half.  The goal was assisted by freshman, Georgia Prouty.  After halftime, the play started to favor the Falcons a bit more.  Junior goal keeper Emily Goddard only had to make 3 saves in the second half and did a fine job judging balls to come out of her box for, due to the speed of the field.  With 11 minutes remaining in the game, Prouty made a beautiful through pass between 2 defenders that landing right on a streaking Bezanson's foot.  The senior captain tucked the ball away for her second goal of the game to secure the 2-0 victory.

 

Danvers got solid play in the midfield off the bench from sophomore, Molly Godfried.  Ellie Anderson was also strong all night at her forward position, competing for every ball and putting her body on the line constantly.  

 

"This was a good win against a solid team on a tough field.    Our defense really stepped up tonight to get the shutout.  Emma had a really solid game in the back and Gabby was flying all over the defensive end of the field for us.  She beat Andover to every ball and didn't let them have any kind of momentum in our end.  Gabby was amazing tonight."

 

With the win, Danvers improved to 9-1-2 on the season.  They next play Friday night in another Non-League match against North Andover.