There was an air of urgency at Cold Spring Playground yesterday. While both the Dedham High and Newton North girls soccer teams still have around half the season left to play, with both perennial tournament clubs entering yesterday’s contest with sub-.500 marks the time to start making a postseason push had clearly come.
The Marauders seemed were heading that direction after building a two-goal edge but the Tigers looked like the team more desperate for points in the second half, striking for five unanswered scores in a 5-2 victory.
“Newton North picked it up and we just got outworked, they outworked us in the second half,” said Dedham coach Don Savi. “Once Newton North got a goal or two they got confidence and they just kept coming at us.”
Dedham falls to 2-5-2 overall and in the Bay State Conference, having dropped its last three contests. North improves to 3-4-4 overall and 3-4-3 in the league.
“We are both in sort of uncharted territory, both under .500 fighting like crazy to get over the top,” said Newton North coach Brian Rooney. “It’s a tough road because there isn’t an easy game in the league and we need every point we can get.”
Staked to a 1-0 at the break thank to a Nicole Savi tally, Dedham appeared poised to take control of the contest when it struck in the opening moments of the second half.
With her back to the goal, Patrice Vettori started out of the Tigers area with the ball when she quickly reversed direction for the left corner and released a high-arcing left-footed shot that beat North goalie Hannah Howcroft high and settled into the back of the net for the 2-0 edge.
That’s when the Tigers began to mount an all-out assault that resulted in an 18-7 shot advantage in the second half, five of which found their mark.
The first came shortly after the Marauders strike. After providing the Tigers with their most dangerous opportunities in the first half with her piercing restarts, North sweeper Anitra Kloczewiak finally had a service finished when her corner kick trickled through traffic in front and found Emma Kornetsky at the back post, who pounded it in to cut the lead to 2-1.
The goal gave life to the Tigers, who began to peppered the Marauders with chances, but it was an innocently looking bid from Julia Quinn that slipped through Dedham keeper Jess Robinson to knot it at 2-all.
Dedham called a timeout to try and regroup, but the Tigers refused to let them, taking the lead for good less than two minutes later. Quinn made a run up the middle and found Suzy Bennett on her left, who deposited it in the far side for the shocking 3-2 advantage with a little more than 18 minutes to play.
Quinn was part of a second-half effort to press forward offensively as the Tigers moved her up from back to midfield while putting a trio of forwards up front.
“It was really frustrating to come out in the second half, at that point it was a big hurdle to climb,” said Rooney. “(Quinn) completely sparked us in the second half. They didn’t seem to mark her, she found her way open a lot and good things happen when she’s open like that. After getting one you sort of got the feeling it was going to be a matter of time we had them so much back on their heels.”
The Marauders were unable to stop the bleeding. The Tigers made it four straight goals when an attempted clear was blocked and bounced right to an open Evelyn Hurwitz, who buried it for the 4-2 advantage.
North added some more insurance in the closing minutes when the Marauders misplayed Michele Kaufman’s cross from the right side and Kornetsky was there to poke it in to an open net for the 5-2 final.
Both squads fired off six shots in the opening half, with Dedham the only one to connect. Jenna Savi lofted a free kick into the left side of the box where Katie Warjas got a piece of it before it came to Nicole Savi in tight. The senior captain banked it home off the near left post and into the far corner for the 1-0 edge 17:38 in.
While the Marauders are still only nine games into a 19-game schedule that lightens up considerably in the second half, Dedham can’t afford too many more pointless afternoons if it wants to continue its long string of tournament appearances.
“We have to win our next game,” said coach Savi, whose team is back in action tomorrow at home against Walpole. “That’s all we can do right now is win our next game.”
