The Danvers Varsity Girls Soccer Team traveled to Div. 1, North Andover Saturday afternoon for a non-league match with the Knights.  Danvers lost on it's Home field a year ago, 1-0 to North Andover.  The last time Danvers beat North Andover was in 2004, 18 years ago.  Coaches Ashley (Sullivan) Gawrys and Taylor Orlando were players on that squad.

 

Danvers came out very slow to start out the game.  North Andover kept the ball in the Falcon end of the field and pressured the visitors.  Senior defender Mikayla Shaffaval had to make several clears from the back line and senior goalkeeper Emily Goddard had to make a couple of saves early.  

 

"Our 3 fowards were coming way back into the midfield to help out defensively.  When we caused North Andover to turn the ball over, we had no forwards to attack with.  We made some adjustments about 9-10 minutes in and it paid off right away.  We moved Ellie Anderson way up on their deep center back and it made a big difference.  We starting playing much better after that and started to dictate the pace of the game."

 

About midway through the first half, junior Krysta Zamejtis cut the ball back and played a great diagonal pass to Anderson.  Anderson's shot was off the mark, but Danvers was creating chances.  With 3 minutes left in the half, Anderson played the role of creator, finding freshman Olivia St. Pierre wide open with a pass. The freshmen put the ball in the back of the net, hitting a low shot to the corner for the lead.

 

Only 8 minutes into the second half, Danvers would give up their lead on some sloppy marking in their own end.  After that, the field seemed to be tilted in Danvers favor.  However, the Falcons were having trouble getting the go ahead goal.  They hit a post, a crossbar and a couple shots went wide on very good opportunities.  In the 19th minute the Falcons got a corner kick.  After a timeout was called, senior forward, Cali Abbatessa hit a line drive serve into the box.  Junior striker Krysta Zamejtis was able to flick it on into a more dangerous area, where St. Pierre was there to put it home.  

 

"We've been trying that play each game and we had come very close a number of times.  Cali did well to put the ball in a dangerous area.  She's been doing it every game for us, and it finally paid off.  Krysta did well to keep the play alive and Liv was there to get the goal."

 

Danvers would get a few more opportunities throughout the remainder of the game, but the Falcons would also have to defend in their own end a bit as well.  At one point, senior defender Ryley Crosby had to make a goal line clear to keep the visitors ahead.  Goddard made 7 second half saves and Shaffaval and the defensive line did their job to clear any threats away.  Danvers would hold on to the lead and win the game 2-1 to improve to 8-4-3.  With the win, Danvers qualified for the State Tournament for the 31st straight year.

 

"Ryley has done that 3 times now this season.  She positions herself well and has come up clutch in those situations.  This was a great team effort today.  We weren't sharp at times and whenever we brought in a fresh wave of players, we really got a boost.  This group has really played well now the last several games and it's great to get into the Tournament again.  That's always a top priority for the girls and now it's a matter of how high a seed we get and then go from there."

 

"Liv really came through today with both those goals and I thought Krysta had a really solid game for us in our attack.  She really sees the field well and passes the ball quickly for us.  Mikayla had a terrific game in the back.  She is great at erasing mistakes and plays really confident back there."

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