SAUGUS — If Saugus girls soccer coach Chris Coviello never sees a Dual County League team in the state tournament again, it’ll be too soon.
“This is the fourth year in a row we’ve been eliminated by a DCL team,” Coviello said, moments after the No. 1 Sachems were eliminated from the Division 3 North tournament with a 4-1 loss to Wayland.
“I honestly think the Dual County League is the toughest league in the state,” he said, noting that the Warriors’ 7-9-2 record and No. 16 seed didn’t delude him into thinking his team would have an easy time.
“They play a hard, physical game,” he said. “Probably harder than us. We are a skill team. They just beat us to the ball all day.
“First play of the game, they come down and right away they have a corner,” he said. “That set the tone right there.”
Wayland coach Guy Enoch agreed, in part, with Coviello.
“Being in the league helps in that we’re prepared for what we’re facing,” he said. “We have to battle all season long. Every game is hard. In that sense, we’re prepared for a team like Saugus.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Sachems (17-1-1), a team that played in the smaller division of the Northeastern Conference, while the power teams are all in the North. The two divisions did not cross over.
The Warriors will play No. 8 Gloucester, 3-0 winners over O’Bryant, at a date and time to be announced, in the sectional quarterfinal.
Wayland got on the board first in the eighth minute on Brooke LaPierre’s goal that came as the result of a side-to-side cross. Her shot just eluded Saugus keeper Alana Aldred.
Saugus managed to tie the score in the 12th minute. Allie Kotkowski picked out the ball from a scrum in front of the net, practically jumping over Wayland goalie Sophie Goldstein to put it behind her.
Though the goal seemed to pick the Sachems up heading into the break, they couldn’t take the lead and the tie stood until halftime.
The second 40 minutes belonged almost exclusively to Wayland. Junior Eden Vanslette broke the tie in the fifth minute with a high, arching shot that Aldred managed to get a hand on. But it was too high to stop, and it fell behind her.
Four minutes later, the Warriors put further distance between themselves and Saugus. Madeline Yaffe took a feed from Allyson Goldin from one side of the goalmouth to the other, and Aldred never had a chance.
Saugus tried mightily to get back in the game, testing Goldstein with point-blank shots by Olivia Tapla Gately and Rachel Nazzaro, but the Wayland goalie stood her ground. And when Kayla Poulsen scored with less than 15 minutes to go, that spelled the end of the Saugus season.
“Still,” Coviello said, “it was a great season for us.”
