Saugus girls soccer team wins one over Peabody

PEABODY – The Saugus girls soccer team got a much-needed win yesterday at Peabody, 2-1.The win give Saugus a winning record for the season (4-3-1). Peabody, whose other loss was last week to Danvers, fell to 7-2.The way the Northeastern Conference is structured, Peabody and Danvers will not play against each other again this year. They are in different sections of the league where you only play the other section once and they cannot meet in the State Tourney as they are in different divisions ( Peabody is D1 and Danvers is D2).Saugus’ Ted Moriello, the dean of North Shore Girls soccer coaches (in his 19th season) said prior to the game, “we worked on a few things in practice that we hope will slow down the Peabody strikers.”Obviously, it worked.Peabody is without all-state midfielder, Alyssa Manoogian (torn ACL), and coach Dennis Desroches said, “no one can replace her. She is the best player in the league.”We are adjusting by putting more emphasis on Erika Digiacomio and Alyssa’s sister, Emily Manoogian.”The first half started with each team using a different style of play. Peabody uses the multiple passing approach and moves the ball up the field.Saugus, whose strikers and midfielders have much more speed than the Peabody defenders, played long ball to the wings to get around the wing defenders and create havoc in the area.In the 23rd minute, Sachem sophomore midfielder Kaleigh Evans carried the ball down the left wing, went around the wing defender causing all the other defenders to shift to stop Evans.This left Alyssa Wilke alone in the arc. Evans passed her the ball and she put Saugus up 1-0, kicking it into the left corner beyond the outstretched arm of Peabody keeper, Katie Tsapatsaris.The second half started with Peabody on the attack. The Tanners moved more players up front to put more pressure on the Saugus defense. They fired shot after shot on the Saugus keeper, Lauren Garchinsky, who managed to stop them. Some of her saves were spectacular.Peabody kept trying to go down the right wing where Erica Digiacomio and Emily Manoogian were waiting to get the ball and do some damage. Saugus defenders Gina Reppucci and Jillian Herr (on the wings) Jackie Strangie (stopper) and Lauren Donati (sweeper) shut them down.In the 62nd minute, Saugus counterattacked and came in on Tsapatsaris three on two.Freshman striker, Gabby Cogliano came down the left wing, cut into the area and set up Evans all alone in front of the keeper. She made a move to the right, drew out the keeper and beat her low left corner. This made the score Saugus 2, Peabody 0 .Peabody finally got on the score sheet in the 76th minute. Digiacomio and Manoogian worked a beautiful give and go that caught the Saugus defenders flat-footed. Digiacomio was in alone on Garchensky and beat her high left just inside the post.Moriello changed his alignment to a 5-4-1 with five defenders packed in front of Garchinsky. In what probably seemed like an eternity, Saugus was able to hold off the Tanners for the last four minutes.”This was our best game so far,” he said. “We really needed the win. It has taken us a while to jell as a team. Now we can make a run at the Tourney.”Desroches had high praise for both teams.”We played well,” he said. “We didn’t get going until late in the game.”Give Saugus credit they played very well.”