DANVERS — Thanks to an offensive explosion in the second half, the Danvers girls soccer team took down Swampscott, 6-1, at Morse Field Wednesday afternoon. Senior captain Riley Baker had two goals and one assist, while freshman Arianna Bezanson scored two goals to pace the Falcons offense.
“We really have some girls who can put the ball in the net and make an impact on offense,” said Danvers coach Jimmy Hinchion. “We weren’t as sharp out there as we were in the first couple games, but we made the plays when we needed to out there.”
Senior captain Lauren Clement and sophomore Riley DiGilio also added one goal each in the win, while junior goalkeeper Kylie MacCormack had a solid game in net.
For Swampscott, Haley Bernhardt scored the lone goal. The Big Blue had opportunities in the first half, but defensive breakdowns in the second half spelled disaster.
“We played well in the first half, but in the second half we simply didn’t play well,” said Swampscott coach Norman James. “Looking at the game, when it was 2-1 we were certainly in it, but we just made too many mistakes in the second half to win this game.”
The Falcons got off to a good start, controlling the pace of play from the early stages. Danvers found the back of the net just five minutes into the game, when Baker fired a shot past Swampscott goalkeeper Nikki Rosa to make it 1-0.
Baker earned her second goal about 14 minutes later, this time on a corner kick. She sent a hard kick in from the corner, trying to find a teammate for a scoring chance, but the ball bounced off a Swampscott player and found the back of the net to make it 2-0.
Swampscott slowed down the Danvers run after that and started to get into a groove as the first half wore on. With about 10 minutes left in the first half, the Big Blue finally broke through when Bernhardt corralled a loose ball, slipped a defender, got the ball on her left foot and fired a shot past a diving MacCormack to cut the deficit to 2-1, which is where the score stood at halftime.
The second half is where Danvers was able to take control, and it didn’t take long. It started just two minutes into play, when Bezanson made a nifty play to kick the ball away from Rosa as the goalkeeper came out to try and pick it up. Once the ball slipped past Rosa, Bezanson had a clear shot at the net and scored her first goal of the game to make it 3-1. Just three minutes later, DiGilio found the back of the net with her left foot to take a three-goal lead. Three minutes after that, Clement scored to make it 5-1.
“It was all defensive breakdowns,” said James. “Their (Danvers) goals weren’t amazing or anything like that, they didn’t make you say ‘wow.’ They executed some pretty easy passes and we just let them past us.”
After Bezanson scored her second goal of the game to make it 6-1 with 24 minutes to go, Danvers coasted to a victory.
“We talk about it all the time, how we eventually wear teams down because we can pass the ball so well,” Hinchion said. “We work hard the whole game, and when breakdowns happen we try to take advantage of them the best we can.”
James said the Big Blue (2-1) will go back and continue to work on the things that led to his team’s defensive breakdowns.
“We need to focus on playing better defense, but more than that, we can’t let the other team play however they want,” James said. “We need to pressure teams more, be a little more physical and just be hungrier out there.”
Swampscott hosts Peabody Friday.
For Danvers (2-1), Hinchion noted the Falcons also have some things they need to clean up as the season goes on.
“We’re still feeling things out here in our third game of the season, so there’s plenty to improve on,” Hinchion said. “We’ll take the two points, especially with this being a league game and all of those being so important, but we’ve still got things we can work on.”
Danvers will play Marblehead Friday.
