AMESBURY — Someday, the St. Mary’s girls soccer team will figure out Amesbury. But if it does, it’ll have to be in 2018.
One year after the Indians kept the Spartans from winning the Division 4 North title, they stood in St. Mary’s way again. This time, they took at 2-0 quarterfinal win at Landry Field Sunday to eliminate St. Mary’s from the D4 North tournament.
“I think they’re one of the best Division 4 teams in the state,” said St. Mary’s coach Jim Foley, whose team has now been outscored 6-0 by the Indians over two tournament appearances. “It wasn’t for lack of effort. Our kids played hard, and we played well. But we made a couple of mistakes and Amesbury made us pay.”
Hannah Burdick got the Indians off and running in the 14th minute of of the game on a long, looping shot from about 25 yards out that just fell over the reach of St. Mary’s goalie Alex Iacoviello, who needed perhaps another foot of height if she was going to bat it away.
“But,” said Foley, “they never should have been able to get the shot off. That was a mistake on our part.”
Things stayed that way until the 37th minute, when Michaela Halloran, with an assist from Chelsea Lynch, doubled Amesbury’s lead. The ball came into Iacoviello, who kicked it out. But it was battered around by several players from both sides before Lynch was able to get it back to Halloran for the shot.
Though neither team scored in the second half, Amesbury did get the better of the action, with Iacoviello making three very good saves to keep the Indians off the board.
“She kept us in the game,” Foley said, “and we had a couple of good chances to get back into the game.”
Abby Fila played a strong game on defense, and freshman Susannah Cornell, at midfield, played well too.
Amesbury will play Essex Tech in the D4 north final Wednesday (5:15) at Manning Field.
