Saugus, Pentucket girls soccer tie

SAUGUS – After graduating nine seniors in 2012, the Saugus girl’s soccer team took to the field for the first time on Thursday with some new faces in the lineup against an unfamiliar opponent in Pentucket. Like many opening contests, the game featured positives and negatives but failed to produce was a victor as the squads settled for a 0-0 draw at Anna Parker Playground.View Photo Gallery”We lost six starters from last season and went out there today looking to fill ourselves out and it came against a team we have never seen before,” explained coach Chris Coviello. “I thought we played pretty well for our first time out.”The two teams will have plenty of time to become acquainted with Saugus’ shift to the Cape Ann League. If Thursday’s encounter was a sign of things to come, then the two teams should establish an exciting rivalry in no time.The first half was a see-saw battle that saw Saugus dominate the tempo, but only in spurts of about two minutes. The Sachems nearly converted on a few occasions, the best coming on a rip from Mikayla Pirella that rattled the top-right post.Pentucket (also the Sachems) kept Saugus keeper Caitlin Williamson busy early on, but failed to produce many quality scoring chances. Coviello credited his solid defense with keeping the visiting offense at bay.”We’ve always been more of a defensive-minded team and as you could see today, this team will be no different,” he said. “The girls don’t panic in the back, and a few of them are new to the lineup.”The second half saw Saugus control the majority of the play for the first 15 minutes as the hosts again threatened, but were thwarted by Pentucket keeper Ashley Riter. In the first 10 minutes alone, both Ashley Corton and Pirella got off strong shots that Riter managed to tip away at the top of her leaps.”Their goalie really kept them in the game today,” said Coviello of Riter’s performance. “On a lot of other goalies we would have had one or two but she played a great game.”With less than 20 minutes to play, it was Williamson’s turn to play hero and she did so more than once. At the 17:20 mark, Jaclyn Belanger sent a shot from the right side to the far post that Williamson laid out to knock down and smother.The half’s biggest play came in stoppage time as Pentucket made one more push at a victory. After a scrum at the top of the box to the right of the goal, a shot came rolling towards Williamson who under pressure from a visiting forward raced out to dive on the ball before the whistle sounded three seconds after.”This was Caitlin’s first varsity start {and shutout} and she really had to earn it,” said Coviello of his keeper. “She seems to have gotten a big boost in confidence from last season when she played JV and that’s a great sign for us.”Saugus’ final and perhaps best chance came off the foot of Nicole Coluccio whose drive from the slot went just over the cross-bar at the 3:00 mark.”I thought that when we played actual soccer today and had our transition game going we played great but when we played kick and run, not so much,” said Coviello.”Saugus will try to put it all together Monday (7) at Triton.