English girls soccer displays progress

LYNN – English girls soccer coach Ed McNeil says says it may sound kind of odd, but he was extremely happy with the way his team played Tuesday despite its 3-0 loss to Salem.?We lost to them 7-1 last time, and it wasn?t pretty,” said McNeil. “Things are so much better now. We made a lot of improvements between then and now.”One thing that?s improved over last year is the record. The Bulldogs won only one game last year. This year, they?ve already won six.?We have a lot of trouble scoring goals,” said McNeil, “so we work on keeping them out.?Today, I thought our defense played fabulously. Karissa Burton played a great game. I told her that, and she said she didn?t think so. But she did. She?s easily our most valuable player.”However, the one thing English didn?t have going for it was Deema Hijleh, the junior forward from Salem whose two first-period goals were more than enough.?She?s a super player,” said McNeil.?She?s really come along,” said Salem coach Fred Day. “She got the goal last week that beat Marblehead.”Hijleh got Salem started in only the sixth minute, as the Witches were able, only a handful of times, to penetrate English?s back line. But they scored on three of those occasions.On Hijleh?s first, she made two nice moves, first on the defense and then on keeper Kaitlyn Nadeau. She swung around Nadeau and had a clear net to shoot at, and she didn?t miss.She did almost the exact same thing again, a few minutes later, only this time her shot hit the crossbar.However, she had a third shot with 14:19 left in the half, once again getting past the defense.With Nadeau coming out to cut down the angle, Hijleh shot it past her into the far corner.In the second half, the Witches continued to dominate as far as possession and territorial advantage went, but they couldn?t penetrate the English defense very often.?They killed us with the offside trap,” said Day, referring to the maneuver in which defenders — in a straight line and in unison — either move up or back, depending on which move will induce an offside call on the offense.?I don?t know whether it?s a Lynn thing,” said Day, who graduated from English, “but we played it too.”?We were playing a new style of defense in which we keep all five girls in a straight line,” said McNeil.Salem did put one more past Nadeau midway through the third period on a goal by Nicole Sadoway.