PEABODY — Defense led the way for the Peabody girls soccer team Monday night when the Tanners secured a 2-0 shutout win over Northeastern Conference opponent Marblehead at Peabody High.
Madeleine Scacchi and Amber Kiricoples each scored one goal for Peabody while Bridget O’Connell dished an assist. Peabody goaltender Shelby Doucette recorded her fourth shutout in five games.
Tanners head coach Dennis Desroches was happy with the way his team bounced back after a loss to Swampscott last week.
“Last game against Swampscott (6-0 Peabody loss), I mean hand it to them, we played on our heels and allowed Swampscott to control play right from the start,” Desroches said. “We needed to fix that coming right into this game because we knew Marblehead returned a monster roster.
“We are fairly new with six or seven freshmen out there, six or seven sophomores. My only returning senior is Catherine Manning who is out four to six weeks with a stress fracture,” Desroches added. “But for these young ones to come out after getting walloped at Swampscott for our first loss, they came out and they really played aggressive going forward and we were not on our heels. The combinations were nice in the first half.”
The Magicians found themselves with the first scoring chance of the day when Annika Haley found Grace Arthur open in the box. Arthur ripped a shot but Doucette made a diving stop to keep the game even.
“Things are starting to come together for us,” Magicians coach Annie Madden said. “Our communication across the field helped us play a strong Peabody team. Good things will come as this is just the beginning.”
The remainder of the game was a defensive battle, for the most part, with both teams switching possession, until Peabody capitalized on two scoring chances in a two-minute span with less than 17 minutes remaining in the first half.
The first goal came after a corner kick by O’Connell that was perfectly placed in front of the Marblehead net. Scacchi finished up the play to put the Tanners up 1-0.
Less than two minutes later, Peabody found itself with another corner kick. This time Aja Alimonte sent a bending kick right off of the crossbar. During the ensuing play Kiricoples lept for a loose ball in front of net to score a header goal and give Peabody a 2-0 lead before the half.
“It was an evenly-played game,” Desroches said. “Fortunately for us we were able to hit a weak side goal with Amber finishing. That is all off-the-ball work and working and getting yourself in position where you need to be.”
In the second half Marblehead came out attacking on offense but the Peabody defense held strong.
“Marblehead, got to give them credit for a section of that game there, especially in the first ten minutes of the second half,” Desroches said. “They started out possessing us a little bit. So our job was to just fill lanes, in other words work off ball a little more.”
The Tanners held on to the two-goal lead to improve to 4-1 on the season. The Tanners play their next game away at Beverly Thursday (4).
“Great game, we are very happy with this turn around,” Desroches said. “We were kind of down on ourselves and we are young but we have to learn from that and we did. We got a nice little win here.
“We have a monster one against Beverly away now,” Desroches added. “That’s a team that’s picked to have a great tournament run, the whole roster is returned and this is going to be a battle for us.”
The Magicians (0-3) host Somerville Thursday afternoon (4), still in search of their first victory of the young season.
