The Swampscott field hockey team was hoping to send its seniors off with a win in Wednesday’s Senior Day game against Northeastern Conference foe Danvers, but that just wasn’t in the cards as the Big Blue fell 3-1 at Blocksidge Field.
“Danvers is a strong team and they moved the ball well (Monday),” said Swampscott coach Courtney Russo. “Talent to talent, I thought we matched up pretty well with them. But Danvers came out and played such a smart game. They didn’t make any mistakes and they capitalized on ours.”
Brooke Waters scored the lone goal for Swampscott in the loss. For Danvers, Grace Brinkley notched a hat trick to pace the offense.
Prior to the game, Swampscott honored its three seniors in team captains Harper Clopton, Jordan Waters and Lilli D’Agostino. The senior trio was especially crucial this year, showing their leadership all summer long by navigating their team through the uncertainty of the pandemic-shortened season.
“These girls have been leaders for us for a long time now, and they’ve just continued to lead us so well through this strange pandemic season,” said Russo. “Over the summer, the girls took the reins and organized the team for workouts and Zoom calls and other things like that, even when we didn’t know if we’d have a season. They kept our team together, and they’ve proven themselves to be excellent leaders.”
As for the game, the Big Blue knew they’d be in for a tough battle up against the defending Northeastern Conference champions. Swampscott had a number of scoring opportunities early in the game but failed to convert. The Falcons got chances on the other end too, and they cashed in. Once Danvers got on the scoreboard, the Big Blue went back on their heels a bit and struggled to recover until the second half.
“I think we got knocked back on our heels a bit when Danvers was able to score that early goal,” said Russo. “We had plenty of scoring opportunities early ourselves, but we couldn’t get anything out of it. When Danvers got its chance to score, they took it and made something happen. I think that took our girls off their game for a bit. We recovered nicely in the second half and got some chances, but it was a little too late.”
The loss puts Swampscott at 2-3-1 on the season, but Russo is happy with where her team is at this point in the shortened season.
“We have a lot of skill and a lot of strengths on this team,” said Russo. “We’ve had a couple of bad bounces here and there, but overall I’m really happy with how the team is playing. Hopefully we can continue to build some momentum and finish this last part of the season in a strong fashion.”
The Big Blue take on NEC foe Saugus Wednesday afternoon (4) at Phillips Park.
