WAKEFIELD — The No. 13 Swampscott girls soccer team dominated from start to finish Thursday, cruising to a 5-0 win over Northeast in the Division 3 North quarterfinal at Langridan Field. The Big Blue’s well-rounded offensive attack started peppering Northeast with scoring chances in the opening minutes and never stopped.
“We always talk about how we’re one game away from packing up and the season is over,” Swampscott coach Norman James said. “Every game is our last game. So we’re going to put high pressure up top and that’s just how we’re going to play. Hopefully it will turn out good for us.”
It’s safe to say that strategy worked out Thursday with five different players — Grace Hudson, Laine Foutes, Thea Spellios, Emerson Laundry and KK Kearney — scoring for Swampscott.
“It’s all about them trusting each other,” James said of the offense. “That’s the most important thing. It seems like the girls don’t trust each other easily but now we’re getting them to do that. It starts from last year and into this year. We had such a young team last year and the upperclassmen are starting to trust the younger classmen. It’s all about trust.”
It didn’t take long for the Big Blue to get started in this one. Swampscott had chances on a direct kick and a corner in the first five minutes, but just missed the mark.
Midway through the first half, Hudson ripped a shot on goal. The Northeast goalkeeper got a piece of it, but it trickled in to give Swampscott a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later Foutes found the back of the net on a direct kick to stretch the lead to 2-0 before a Northeast timeout.
The break didn’t do much to stop Swampscott’s momentum. Spellios scored on a nice shot in the box to give the Big Blue a 3-0 lead before the half.
With a large lead throughout the game, James and the Big Blue got to work in all their players and a number of different combinations on the field. Swampscott didn’t skip a beat.
“We had the ball movement even when we mixed it up,” James said. “That’s what we want to do. We want to be 22 deep. We don’t want to be 11 deep and then everybody knows that. You want to be able at any given moment to switch it up and put another player in another position. We have two players at each position, so everybody has to fight for a spot.”
The second half was more of the same with Swampscott dominating possession time. Laundry found the back of the net early on in the second half and Kearney scored on a direct kick later on to cap off the 5-0 Big Blue win.
Swampscott advances to the semifinal against No. 1 Stoneham. The game will be played Tuesday (5) at Manning Field.
“We’re just glad to get here, so it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” James said. “It’s about focusing on Stoneham and getting ready.”
