Girls Soccer: Dowd, Peabody clinch NEC North crown

Though it didn’t come without a major fight from a gritty and talented Beverly team, the Peabody girls soccer team once again can call itself champions of the NEC North thanks to a 4-3 win over the Panthers on Monday at Donahue Field.”Beverly is a really talented team and they always seem to give us a good game,” Peabody coach Dennis Desroches said. “They are a great squad but one of our goals was to defend our league title and we’ve done that now.”The Panthers pushed out to a 1-0 lead before Hayley Dowd netted the first of her hat trick to send the teams to halftime in a 1-1 tie. Dowd struck again early in the second half to put Peabody in front.Beverly responded as the teams began to trade goals. Eventually, Victoria Digiacomo would net the game-winner for the Tanners, assisted by Madison Doherty and Dowd.”We outshot them something like 19-5 in the game. But they were able to finish on a high percentage of their chances,” Desroches said. “Fortunately we were able to put four on the board ourselves.”Gloucester 3, English 1At Manning Field, the Bulldogs (5-10-3) trailed 2-0 before Briana Moreno, a senior co-captain, netted her 11th goal of the year to cut the lead to 2-1 at the half. The Fishermen would add an insurance goal in the second half.Bulldogs coach Ed McNeil saluted goalie Karissa Burton (15 saves) and senior co-captains Hayley Mah and Mackenzie Clark (both defensemen) for their performances in the game.Danvers 3, Swampscott 1At Phillips Park, freshman Shannon Pohle scored back-to-back second half goals to break a scoreless tie as the Falcons (11-5-1, 8-2-1 NEC North) got back in the win column.”We’ve had a tough stretch of games against some powerful teams,” Danvers coach Jim Hinchion said. “It was a very balanced game. We knew coming in it would be.”Swampscott’s (9-6-2) Taylor Eaton cut the lead to 2-1 before Kristen Yost scored with 2:00 left for the Falcons.Mystic Valley 5, Tech 0At Manning Field, Neysi Deras, Daylin Munoz and Julissa DeLeon all played well for the Tigers.Fenwick 3, Matignon 0At Donaldson Field in Peabody, Rose Fantozzi and Jess Giglio had first half goals with Alicia Villett adding a second half tally as the Crusaders (9-2-5) cruised to victory.Marblehead 1, Salem 0At Marblehead, Kathryn DiGiammarino’s goal midway through the first half was the only dent on the scoreboard.Winthrop 4, Revere 2At Miller Field in Winthrop, senior Nicole Black had two goals while seniors Kayla Murphy and Amanda Cordes each had a goal in their final home game.