RallyNorth.net

Wed, Nov 07, 2007 02:30 PM @ Georgetown

Team	Final
Playoff Game
Hamilton-Wenham	1
Georgetown	5

Georgetown advances to semis with victory over league foe

Thursday, November, 08 By Dan Guttenplan
Sports editor

The Division 3 North girls soccer tournament is beginning to play out like a Cape Ann League tournament.

No. 12 Georgetown became the most recent CAL team to assert its pedigree yesterday, advancing to the semifinal round with a 5-1 victory over CAL-foe and No. 13 seed Hamilton-Wenham.

Georgetown received two goals from Nicoline Holland and one each from Katherine Falzareno, Emma Cannon and Michelle Reilly. The Royals will face the winner of last night's quarterfinal matchup between No. 16 Weston and No. 8 Ipswich | another CAL foe.

Georgetown (11-7-1) was one of five CAL team to advance to the quarterfinals; the others included No. 2 Newburyport, No. 8 Ipswich, No. 13 Hamilton-Wenham (7-6-5) and No. 14 Lynnfield. As a whole, CAL teams were 5-0 entering the quarterfinals.

"It shows how strong the level of competition is during the season," said Georgetown goalie Vanessa Coolidge, who had 22 saves yesterday. "On any given day, any one of these teams is capable of pulling off an upset. We're showing that in this tournament."

Perhaps no player had a bigger hand in yesterday's victory than Coolidge, who did not allow a goal in 75 minutes of action. Hamilton-Wenham striker Cassie Penta tallied her team's lone score against Georgetown's second-string goalie Pauline Reilly in the 77th minute.

"She made some exceptional saves," Georgetown coach Colleen Gibbs said. "The score definitely isn't a good reference for the way the game was played. We had a lot of great shots on net, and they had a lot of theirs stopped."

With nine goals in two tournament games, the Royals appear to have snapped out of a scoring slump that started at midseason. In their last seven games, the Royals scored a total of eight goals.

"We had a tough time scoring at the end of the season, so it's exactly the right time to get going," Falzareno said. "We've put a lot of working into finishing our scoring chances, and it's showing."

Following the game, the Georgetown girls took a celebratory job from sideline to sideline. On the spectator side, which was lined with fans for three-quarters of the length of the field, the players were greeted with a standing ovation. "I have no idea how far we'll go," Coolidge said. "But we're just enjoying each win."