CHS girls’ soccer team bows to Duxbury

After finishing last season with a 17-2-1 record, the CHS girls’ soccer team entered unfamiliar territory Saturday, losing its first game 4-1 to Duxbury.

Paul Turner, a first-year coach at CHS, noted that Duxbury, in the midst of a peak season with many club soccer and college-bound players, would be one of the Canton’s hardest opponents this year.

The girls fell behind at the start of the game when Duxbury scored a quick goal in the first few minutes. Turner said he was impressed, however, with how quickly Canton bounced back. Sophomore Lauren Berman, a Hock and Eastern Mass all star last season, scored the team’s only goal in the fifth minute off a penalty kick. The two teams appeared evenly matched throughout much of the first half with Canton giving up its second goal during the 31^st minute. The girls began to run into trouble 15 minutes into the second half when they showed evidence of running out of steam. Additionally, Turner said the team struggled with organization on the field, which led the girls to play defensively for much of the second half.

“They spent a lot of time chasing the ball,” Turner said. “That makes the game tougher and more physically demanding.”

Despite the disappointing loss, Turner said that the team is upbeat about the season.

“The girls know they had a tremendous season last year and lost a core group of seniors, players who are hard to replace,” he said. “We know the expectations are high and we expect to do well this season.”

The team has a strong nucleus of experienced players led by senior captains Casey Donahoe and Michelle Whelan, and junior captain Vicky Tondre.

“The chemistry on the team is good,” Turner said. “Once we get into the swing of things, we’ll be hard to beat.”

Turner isn’t shy about the fact that he expects the girls to make the tournament, but he also says he holds the individual and team growth paramount to wins in the post season.

“My goal is for every player to love and understand the game more at the end of the season,” Turner said.

And Turner might just be the perfect person to help foster each player’s personal growth. Despite being in his rookie year at CHS, Turner spent more than a decade as a player on semi-professional soccer teams in England and the U.S. before coaching girls soccer for nine years at Dennis Yarmouth and opening up his own soccer academy on the Cape.

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Posted by Jeffrey Cattel on Sep 16 2010. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.