The Danvers Varsity Girls Soccer Team traveled to Beverly Thursday afternoon for a match with league rival Beverly.  Danvers came in only having won once in the past six years at Beverly's field.  With a brand new turf to play on, Danvers was hoping to put an end to many years of tough luck playing in Beverly.

 

Danvers got tough news before the game finding out that senior striker and captain Reese Pszenny would be out the stretch of the season due to a back injury.  "Reese has been an amazing 4 year player for us and she's had a terrific senior season.  She has been so vital to everything we do on the field, especially offensively.  She's our best at winning head balls, taking free kicks inside 30 yards and she can hold the ball like nobody I've ever seen.  Her dribbling skills are phenomenal.  My heart goes out to her and her Family.  Right now, we just want what's best for Reese and hope she's able to make a speedy recovery.  As a team we'll need others to step up in her absence.  Although, her shoes are impossible to fill."

 

When the game began, Danvers came out of the gate a little sluggish.  However, Beverly did as well and the game went back and forth for the first 10 minutes.  Danvers had a great chance early on when freshmen Brooke Wynott found herself behind the Panther defense breaking in on the goalkeeper.  Her shot to the right sailed just wide.  Emma Dunn did well defensively to keep any threatening Beverly attacks from getting started and left back Ryley Crosby was consistently winning 50 / 50 balls on the left side of the field.  Junior Mikayla Shaffaval defended hard on the right side of the field.  Still, it was Beverly who scored first when a miss hit Danvers defensive clearance came right to a Beverly attacker who struck the ball hard into the left side of the goal for the early Panther lead.

 

“I didn't recognize the team I was watching out on the field.  We were slow, we weren't aggressive and we were making silly mistakes.  There was no urgency to the way we were playing and when Beverly scored, that was a big wake up call."

 

The Falcons still struggled to get any kind of attack going though until the final minute of the first half.  Freshman Georgia Prouty found junior forward Ellie Anderson who was able to just get enough of a shot off to fool the Beverly goalkeeper.

The goal made things 1-1 going into halftime.

 

"That first goal by Ellie couldn't have come at a better time.  We really stunk it up for 39 minutes of that first half.  We were hoping that getting that goal might get us going a bit.  We decided to switch up our formation as well and were hoping we could create some better opportunities with it."

 

The change in formation seemed to pay off quickly as Danvers all of the sudden was attacking with more speed and connecting better on passes.  In the 8th minute Danvers was awarded a corner kick which was served perfectly by senior captain Gabby Chisholm.  The serve found Anderson who put home her second goal of the game, giving Danvers their first lead of the game.  Four minutes later, Anderson fed senior captain Arianna Bezanson in on a partial break away.  Bezanson's initial bid was saved but she got her own rebound and put it home for the 3-1 lead.  Less than 3 minutes later, Anderson connected again for her first career hat trick.  Bezanson played a ball to Prouty who hit a hard shot towards the Beverly net.  The shot was flicked on by junior striker Cali Abbatessa, sending it over the goalie and off the crossbar.  When the ball came down, Ellie Anderson was there to head the ball home for the 4-1 lead.  

 

Danvers seemed to control the midfield throughout the second half of the game.  Junior Courtney Hinchion played 1 and 2 touch passes to open teammates and junior Teagan Price closed down defensively very quickly on any Beverly player with the ball in her area of the field.  Gabby Chisholm dominated once again from her center back spot, breaking up attacks defensively and initiating attacks for her own team.  Chisholm sent in a long ball later in the half that found the foot of Georgia Prouty.  Once again, the freshman unselfishly fount Anderson, who scored her 4th goal of the game.  Late in the half, Beverly was awarded a direct kick after a Danvers player was given a yellow card for a hard tackle.  The Beverly player's shot was saved by keeper Emily Goddard but another Beverly player was open at the back post to put it in.  Two minutes later the final whistle blew and Danvers had earned the 5-2 win.

 

Danvers got lots of valuable minutes off the bench from players.  Sophomore Reese Holland on defense, sophomores Kacie McDonough and Molly Godfried at midfield and juniors Cali Abbatessa and Katie Walfield along with sophomore Krysta Zamejtis at forward all contributed to the winning effort.  Coach Hinchion was very proud of his team's play in the second half and was thrilled that Anderson had such a breakout game.