RallyNorth.net

Newburyport corners Ipswich girls soccer in North final

Tuesday, November, 13 By Bill Kipouras
Staff writer

The Newburyport girls' soccer team not only has speed, a plethora of talent and great ball movement, but it's also very heady | as overmatched Ipswich High found yesterday morning at Leary Field.

The once-beaten Clippers scored four times on head balls off of corners and generally spent so much time in Ipswich territory that the field may have seemed tilted to the Tigers' end in a 6-1 victory.

The all-Cape Ann League Division 3 North final found Newburyport staging a clinic as it won the girls' North for the second successive year.

"They have a class program. I wish Newburyport beats Norwell in (tomorrow's state semifinal)," Ipswich coach Manny Lopes said. "I think they will. They have the people to do it. I told (Clippers' coach) Rob Gonnam I truly believe they'll do it. It would be nice to have a state champion from the CAL." There had been some ill feelings when charges of recruiting were leveled at Newburyport from the Ipswich camp after the Clippers buried Ipswich, 9-3, in regular season.

Gonnam told The Newburyport Daily News in a pregame interview that "we won't concentrate on vengeance, we'll concenterate on excellence," and yesterday he politely declined to discuss any vengeance issue.

Not that 19-1-1 Newburyport needed any motivation. The Clippers were just that much better than the eighth-seeded Tigers (12-5-4).

Colleen Coviello and Taylor Bresnahan each scored twice and CAL Player of the Year Jillian Kinter and Maggy Mahoney added the other tallies as the Clippers stretched their unbeaten streak to 10 games.

Lindsey Tomasz (3 saves) and Lauren Bertone (1 save) combined for four saves in the Clippers' net while Ipswich sophomore standout Lia Webb had 14 stops. Webb was scrambling and under heavy-duty pressure all game as Newburyport appeared constant and sometimes relentless on offense.

Ipswich never did back off. It had the will, but not the strength and skill. But it was still battling a little under two minutes to go when its leading scorer, Kayla Jernegan, scored on a line drive just inside the 18 to the top left corner, with fellow Tiger Erika Giovaniello assisting. It was Jernegan's 18th goal of the season.

Don't think this particular goal didn't mend any wounds from the day's developments.

"It made my day," Lopes said."We were jumping up and down like it was the go-ahead goal. We couldn't have been more pleased. Jernegan is never satisfied. She always wants to do more. Even if she scored five in the game, she would still feel she should have scored six. She's a very competitive young lady. She's going to be missed around here. We have eight seniors in that category."

In the eyes of Ipswich's April Hoffman, the goal was like final closure for the seniors.

"It was bittersweet today," said the senior middie wing. "We had a great game against Georgetown (a 2-1 semifinal win on penalty kicks). But Newburyport was an unbelievable team. We may have lost, but we gave it all we had."

Hoffman, who made her first tournament start, was involved in a head-to-head collision, sat out for 15 minutes, and returned.

"What she did was exemplary of this team, coming back like that," Lopes said.

Hoffman, in a classy move, paid full marks to Newburyport. "They have unbelievable skill," she said. "They have highly athletic girls. They'll do well. They brought a hard game and brought it well."

Gonnam, who may have his best team in 16 years, said the ball movement comes from having girls who have played together for six or seven years.

"We had a lot of good anticipation, a lot of continuity," Gonnam said. "Its hard to defend that, and our corner kicks were definitely a plus. Our focus was excellent."

"I think we just had more experience," Kinter said, "and we wanted the North title again."

It puzzled Lopes that Newburyport connected on four corners. "That's uncharacteristic for us. We have may given up maybe one all season," he said.

Clipper Power

There's evidence that Newburyport is just too quick for Ipswich in girls' soccer.

The Clippers have rattled the Tigers' cage to the tune of 9-3 and 9-2 in their last two meetings in regular season. Thus, the Clippers' domination over Ipswich, 6-1, in the Division 3 North final yesterday was a reasonable expectation. They had a 4-0 lead after 28 minutes.

Ipswich coach Manny Lopes compared Newburyport to some of the old Winchester teams as a result of its passing, speed and technical strengths.

Additional stories:

• Clippers beat Ipswich to capture second straight sectional crown