Girls’ soccer team stumbles vs. OA

Riding an 11-game unbeaten streak and hoping to solidify its place atop the Davenport Division, the CHS girls’ soccer team let a golden opportunity slip away with a 3-0 home loss to Oliver Ames last week.

Senior Sammy Sullivan (left) battles a Sharon player for possession. (Mike Barruci photo)

As a result, the Tigers now have the inside track on first place after ceding the top spot to the Bulldogs just a week earlier.

All season long, in fact, the two teams have been neck and neck in the standings, and the same was true of their previous meeting back on September 20, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Last Tuesday, however, the Canton girls let their frustrations get the better of them after a promising and competitive first half. Head coach Kate Howarth said they should not have allowed the first goal, and after a second “flukey” goal made it 2-0 in favor of OA, the Bulldogs seemed to lose whatever fight they had left.

“After that second goal they just looked defeated,” said Howarth. “They didn’t react well at all to that goal.”

Fortunately for Canton fans, the loss proved to be a temporary setback and nothing more as the Bulldogs easily took care of Sharon on Thursday and then played what Howarth described as their best game of the season against nonleague Andover two days later.

Although it ended in a 1-0 defeat, Howarth said the Andover game on Saturday was a joy to watch and coach.

“[Andover] was by far the best team we’ve played,” she said, “and it was by far the best game we’ve played all year, absolutely the best.”

Howarth said she rode her starters for most of the game and all of them played well, including Andrea Tamasi, Tessa Cudmore, Lexie and Sarah MacQuarrie, Chloe Shepard, Hayley Mulford, and captains Hailee Duserick, Kim McNally and Rachel Campagna.

In the previous game against Sharon, Howarth did use many of her reserves and a number of them stepped up with strong performances, including Gabby Matthews, who scored one of the team’s three goals, along with Sarah MacQuarrie and freshman Hannah Link.

The Bulldogs, now 10-3-3, will close out the regular season this week with games against Foxboro and Stoughton. The team will then move on to the Division 2 south sectional tournament, with seeding and matchups expected to be announced on Monday.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Oct 24 2013. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.