SALEM — The Saugus girls soccer team brought on the offense in their 4-0 win over the Salem Witches Wednesday evening.
“We played well in (some) spurts and others we didn’t so we have to clean that up and play a lot better more consistently,” said Saugus head coach Chris Coviello.
The Sachems wasted no time with senior Jordan Morris registering a shot within the first minute of the match that just whistled by the post. The Witches struggled to get the ball out of their defensive third and this cost them in the third minute as Morris connected with junior Allison Justice to give Saugus a 1-0 lead.
Salem’s attackers did a good job of tracking back to help out their back line, but the Sachems controlled possession at the beginning of the match. In the 10th minute, the Witches were rewarded for their hard work, as Mei Li Hannig found the ball at her feet inside the box, but the shot sailed just over the crossbar.
Senior Jenna Tennant nearly increased the Sachems’ lead with a great run in the 15th minute, but her shot hit the side netting. Salem responded with a decent spell of possession in the final third but failed to create any scoring chances.
After a rough start, the Witches’ back line improved as they blocked shots, intercepted passes, and did a good job of holding their line. That lasted until the 33rd minute as Shayln Sewell scored to give Saugus a 2-0 lead.
Moments later Salem goalkeeper Kate Heppner made a great stop that kept the deficit at two. Five minutes later though, Justice added another goal, which gave the Sachems a 3-0 lead entering halftime. In the 45th minute, Heppner continued her great goalkeeping as she got her hands on a lofted shot from Jordan Morris. Heppner made another great save in the 56th minute but Morris cleaned up the rebound and gave Saugus a 4-0 lead.
After a strong start for Salem’s attack in the second half, it struggled to maintain possession with most of the activity in the half taking place in the Witches’ final third. Heppner, along with Salem’s back line, did a serviceable job despite the scoreline, as they limited the damage with quality tackles and interceptions.
With a young roster, Salem head coach Eric Farley said he was pleased with the growth of the back line this season and thought that they had another quality outing.
“We are young on paper, but we are improving,” he said. “We knew this was going to be a rebuilding year with younger kids and to be quite honest, from where we were a month ago (up) until where we are now, offensively, I wish we could put the ball in the net but defensively we are very solid.”
Salem is now 2-8 and faces Gloucester on Thursday (4:30).
Saugus is 9-5 and faces Danvers on Monday (4).
