The Danvers Varsity Girls Soccer Team rounded out their regular season Wednesdy night with a 6-0 win over Salem.  Danvers came into the game riding a season high 4 game winning streak and needed the win to clinch second place in the N.E.C. Dunn Division.  Danvers scored their first goal 6 minutes into the game.  After some nice passing, sophomore Georgia Prouty played a pass to freshman Lila Doucette who shielded off a defender, then buried her shot for the 1-0 lead.  From that point on, Danvers struggled a bit with Salem's high defensive line.  

 

"We were offside 9 times in the first half!  We were trying to play a little too direct and Salem did a nice job at pulling their defense at the right time.  It took us far too long to adjust but once we started dribbling through their trap, the game opened up for us.  Freshman Olivia St. Pierre did really well with it.  She was great at picking up on when Salem was pulling and several times she was able to dribble through."

 

The Falcon defense played steady and didn't allow a first half shot on senior goalkeeper, Emily Goddard.  Mikayla Shaffaval and Addi McCarty at center back and Ryley Crosby, Lily Delafano and Skylar Laws out outside back all did well defensively to keep the Witches in their own end of the field.  Danvers had a great chance midway through the first half when sophomore Brooke Wynott played a quick corner and caught Salem unaware on defense.  However, the play didn't result in a goal, leaving the score 1-0.  Danvers also had 2 direct kicks from outside the box.  Both were taken by St. Pierre and both clanged off the crossbar.  With 9 minutes to play in the half, Georgia Prouty scored for her second point of the game, assisted by freshman Addi McCarty on a nice through pass up the middle.  One minute later, the Falcons struck again.  Goalkeeper Goddard sent a long goal kick to about midfield.  Senior Ellie Anderson collected the ball there and broke through the defense and hit a rocket of a shot into the back of the net for the 3 goal lead.  

 

"That certainly wasn't anywhere near our best half of soccer.  I give Salem a lot of credit for catching us so many times offsides.  We felt that if we made some adjustments on how we attacked, we could find the back of the net some more in the second half."

 

Eleven minutes into the second half, freshman Doucette made a strong dribbling run up the right flank of the field.  She sent a hard, low, diagonal ball into the box where senior Courtney Hinchion had made a sprinting run to. Hinchion 1 timed the pass hard into the net for the 4th goal of the game.

 

"That was a great goal by Courtney and a fantastic pass by Lila.  We talk all the time about players making runs toward the back post and it was nice to see it pay off for Courtney." 

 

Eight minutes later, junior Molly Godfried made a similar run, however a little more up the center of the field.  This time, it was sophomore Maddie Dembowski who made the dribbling run up the field and sent the cross into the box.  Godfried 1 timed the pass home for another great goal by the Falcons.  Danvers would get several more great looks on the Salem goal from Godfried and seniors Katie Walfield and Cali Abbatessa but the game stayed at 5-0.  The defensive end once again stayed strong allowing no shots on senior keeper, Emma Gibbons.  Mid way through the half, Ellie Anderson made a 40 yard run with the ball off a pass from St. Pierre.  Anderson's finish on goal made the score 6-0.  Danvers continued to pressure and got some creative play from junior, Krysta Zamejtis who dummied a ball through her legs beautifully to a teammate making a run.  Senior captain Teagan Price had a strong game in the middle of the field, connecting passes and snuffing out any thoughts of attack by the hosts.  

 

"Teagan had a fantastic game for us.  She played well throughout but caught 2 bad breaks towards the end of the game.  Twice, Teagan followed up on a teammates shot and both times the Salem goalkeeper gave up the rebound.  Teagan scored them both, but both times the referee said it was offside.  All our coaches agreed that neither was offside, especially because the plays were off rebounds from their goalie.  That was a tough result for Teagan who worked so hard on both those plays.  But goal or no goal, she played very well tonight."

 

Sophomore Maddie Dembowski played goalie the last 1/4 of the game and made 2 saves in route to the Falcon's 8th shutout of the season.  Everyone contributed.  Team manager Tabitha Sears and injured junior defender Reese Holland were among the first to congratulate their teammates on the victory.  The win put Danvers at 11-4-3 overall for the regular season and 8-3-2 in league play, resulting in a second place finish in the N.E.C. Dunn Division.

 

"This was a nice Team win tonight to finish out the regular season.  We started off the season in September rather slowly and took a few hard losses.  The girls never lost focus though and continued to get better every day.  To end the regular season on a 5 game win streak is a great achievement for these girls.  Now it's up to them to continue that streak as long as possible in November."

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