Drury Girls Bow Out in Sweet 16
WHITINSVILLE, Mass. – Even down by a pair of goals, even having limited success getting out of its half of the field, the Drury girls soccer team still looked like a team with a puncher’s chance in Wednesday’s Division 5 Sweet 16 game at Whitinsville Christian.
But the No. 5 Crusaders scored in the last minute of the first half to take a 3-0 lead and twice more in the first 10 minutes of the second half to put things out of reach in a 5-0 victory on Wednesday afternoon.
“That was a little bit of a momentum killer for us,” Drury coach Maria Bartini said of the third goal.
“But, you know, these girls battled all the way through. I couldn’t be prouder of them. We really had a great season. I’d love to have competition like [Whitinsville Christian] on a weekly basis. That would be fantastic. And the girls want that and love that.”
Whitinsville dominated the first half, keeping the Blue Devils (17-3-1) locked in throughout.
Drury’s defense was able to withstand the pressure until the 17th minute, when Meadow O’Connell redirected a Hannah Lashley corner kick to break a scoreless tie.
Fifteen minutes later, O’Connell struck again, this time from the top corner of the 18 on the right wing with a shot that found the back of the net after grazing the fingertips of Drury keeper Brooke Bishop.
Moments later, a rare first-half foray into the Crusaders’ end produced Drury’s only shot on goal of the afternoon, a blast from distance on the right wing that was caught by keeper Madison Amati.
Bishop bore the brunt of the day’s offensive chances, and in addition to her 10 saves, she came off her line to intercept crosses a number of times to deny Whitinsville Christian prime scoring chances.
But in the closing moments of the first half, Amanda Cinelli cashed in from the top of the 18 for the Crusaders to give them a three-goal margin going into intermission.
Whitinsville Christian carried that momentum into the second half, with O’Connell completing her hat trick in the 45th minute and Margaret Johnson converting a penalty kick five minutes later.
Shortly after that 10-minute offensive burst, Drury was able to start gaining possession time in Whitinsville Christian’s end – not enough to produce an elusive goal but enough to ease some of the pressure on the Blue Devils’ backs.
“We tried to shift our formation a little bit to try and account for some holes and gaps we were allowing,” Bartini said. “It can be challenging to play a team you don’t know anything about. And we were trying to figure out tactics by watching in the first half.
“I think after that first half, we had some ideas of how we could account for it, but we were already three goals down.”
Bartini was not surprised to see her team run into its biggest challenge of the fall in its third state tournament game.
“Props to Whitinsvile,” she said. “They’re a very strong team. We knew we were going to have our work cut out for us just by virtue of playing the No. 5 seed. The state tournament ranking system – as much as people complain about them … it generally works out pretty well.
“So we knew it was going to be a tough game, but I think we fought hard and represented well.”