RallyNorth.net

Newburyport reaching its goal

Monday, November, 12 By John Shimer
Staff writer

On a chilly evening at North Andover High School, the Div. 3 North girls soccer bracket was whittled down to the final two teams.

Newburyport prevailed over Lynnfield, but Georgetown fell to Ipswich in overtime.

In the first game, No. 8 Ipswich applied a steady stream of pressure on No. 12 Georgetown's goal for the majority of the game. Led by a one-girl wrecking crew, sweeper Katherine Falzareno was able to disrupt nearly all of Ipswich's repeated efforts to find the goal in regulation and overtime.

Anything that got by Falzareno, the Royals' captain, keeper Vanessa Coolidge was there to clean up, and she did so in fine form on several occasions. The game would stay knotted at 0-0 through regulation and overtime before moving into a shootout.

In the shootout both goalies, Lia Webb of Ipswich and Coolidge for Georgetown, were absolutely sensational going save for spectacular diving save. And it took sudden death to settle it. Ipswich hit its first shot in sudden death, but Georgetown could not level the score on its shot, and the Tigers won 4-3.

That game proved to be just the appetizer for No. 2 Newburyport's feast as the Clippers looked almost invincible against No. 14 Lynnfield, winning rather easily, 3-1.

The high-powered Clipper offense was in full gear against the Pioneers, who could thank their goalie Diana Triffletti for keeping them in the game with several point-blank, reaction saves.

Lynnfield, which was one of only three teams in the regular season to hold the Clippers under three goals (Newburyport won 2-0), again was able to bottle up Newburyport for a good portion of the game by putting most of its players behind the ball on defense and looking to counter attack. However, that did not stop the Clippers from moving the ball beautifully around the field.

Newburyport first got on the board a little over 10 minutes into the first half when outside winger Micaela Hogan had a tremendous individual effort, cutting up three Pioneer defenders before slotting a powerful shot in the lower left netting. The score would remain a Newburyport 1-0 advantage until halftime.

Whatever was said at halftime by the Clipper coaching staff, its players took to heart because 15 seconds into the second half was all the time the team needed to add its second goal.

Taylor Bresnahan received the third pass after Newburyport's kickoff, and she went off on one of her patented runs, beating five Lynnfield players on the left side of the field before placing an absolutely picturesque cross that left all of Lynnfield nation only hoping Jillian Kinter would miss the net. Kinter was dead on, though, crashing in and finishing with authority, leaving Triffletti no chance.

Five minutes later, CAL small player of the year Jamie Harris would get the goal back after a bit of scrum in Newburyport box. Harris received the ball on the right side of the box and she hit a perfect shot into the corner, momentarily giving the Clippers a bit of a scare with the score, 2-1.

Bresnahan was to be the hero on the night, though. Only a mere 15 minutes later Newburyport won a free kick 25 yards outside of Lynnfield's goal. Laura Muise looked to pass, but it was deflected and not properly cleared by the Pioneer defense. The ball went bouncing right to Bresnahan's feet and she hit an absolute screamer of a shot that hit off the ground once and then found the net.

"Two years ago we lost this same game to Lynnfield and ever since it has been quite a little rivalry between us," said Bresnahan after her team moved on to the North finals in Acton-Boxborough today. "They are relentless on defense, but we just tried to keep up our own momentum."

After being surrounded by controversy this last week following the St. Mary's game, the Clippers will get a chance to exact some revenge against Ipswich. Newburyport already beat the Tigers 9-3 in the first matchup; however, following the game, Ipswich's coach Manny Lopes made some comments to The Ipswich Chronicle alleging that the Clippers' coach recruited his players.

Lopes would later apologize for the inaccurate statement, but the Clipper players have been hoping they would get a chance to see the Tigers one more time.

"We were really hoping to get this opportunity and we are really excited about the game," said Kinter, who was coy in not specifically referring to Lopes' comments. "Ipswich is an excellent team with some fast forwards and aggressive defense, and we think it will be an excellent game."

If the Clippers get beyond Ipswich Monday, they would have a rematch of last year's state semifinal against Norwell, who beat the Clippers 2-1. Norwell beat Cohasset in the South sectional final Sunday, 1-0.