Having already lost two Division 2 South battles before the postseason had even started, the Dedham High girls soccer team wasn’t about to make it a third.
Sophomore Jenna Savi had two goals and an assist, including the game-winner in the 51st minute, as the No. 6 Marauders opened the tournament with a 3-2 first-round win over No. 11 Sandwich.
“Sandwich is a good team, they were the champs of (the Atlantic Coast League),” said Dedham coach Don Savi. “We knew what we were in for. It’s a good win when you beat a team like that.”
Dedham, now 16-2-1, advances into the quarterfinals to take on No. 3 Canton, a 4-1 first round winner over Foxboro, Wednesday night (6 p.m.) at Canton High.
The Marauders fell into a difficult draw when they were denied an appeal of their seeding, feeling that No. 4 Old Rochester should have to count a rescheduled game after the cutoff time as a loss and not as a no contest, which would have put Dedham into a three-way coin flip for the fourth, fifth and sixth spots.
When Dedham learned that its potential quarterfinal opponents were not playing until Monday, it requested its Saturday assignment be moved back to Monday as well in order to give an illness-ravaged squad a few extra recovery days, but was rebuffed again.
The Marauders put those disappointments behind them and turned their focus on a young, but dangerous, Blue Knights team recently moved down from Division 1.
Dedham sprung on them early, scoring just 5:21 in. Savi drilled a corner kick into the box and freshman Kayla Sharpe redirected it in for her first varsity goal and a 1-0 Dedham lead.
But Sandwich answered less than three minutes later when Liz Manganella’s chip was mishandled by Dedham goalie Cara Corcoran and Molly Morris was there to pounce on the loose ball and touch it, tying the game at 7:51.
The Marauders found themselves trailing with a little over 15 minutes to play in the first half when Theresa Wojnar ran onto a perfect cross from Allison Lizotte and buried it for a 2-1 lead.
“It was more like a semifinal,” said Sandwich coach Dave DeConto, whose team featured just one senior, of the contest. “The Dedham coach gave me his number after the game so we can scrimmage next year. He said we can play with anyone in their league.”
Savi’s lethal ability on corner kicks got Dedham back even before the half was up, however, as she bent one into the goal mouth, off a Sandwich defender to knot things at 2-2 at 32:37, which is how it stood at the break.
