Winchester Girls Win North Soccer Title

The Class of 2021 made its presence felt Monday in Lynn.

Winchester scored three first half goals, all by sophomores, and went on to beat Danvers, 3-1, in the Division 2 North title game at Manning Field. Winchester will play South champion Hopkinton Saturday at Xaverian for the MIAA Division 2 state title. Hopkinton (13-3-6) beat Notre Dame of Hingham Monday, 1-0.

There are fast starts, and then there's the start the Sachems (21-1) put together against the defending state champions, including a goal before many fans had settled in their seats.

"It was certainly a dream start," said Winchester coach Rick Emanuel. "The plan was to play the first 10 like the last 10."

With Danvers (18-3-1) playing loose in front of freshman goalie Reese Pszenny, Ally Murphy scored just 37 seconds into the game on an assist from Ella Ross. Less than three minutes later Winchester struck again, with Hannah Curtin scoring an unassisted goal at 37:03. Danvers coach Jim Hinchion called time out, but it was 2-0 and the Falcons looked lost.

The timeout restored order for Danvers and it controlled much of the play for the next 15 minutes. Madison Capezzuto, Riley DiGillo, and Riley Baker all had scoring chances but Winchester sophomore goalie Colleen Gogolin was up to the challenge and kept Danvers off the board.

At 18:41 Winchester scored again. A crossing pass eluded numerous players from both teams, only to settle on the foot of Jordan Weinberg. The sophomore forward took her time and drilled it past Pszenny to make it 3-0. Curtin got the assist.

"That was huge, just to give us some breathing room," said Emanuel.

Danvers didn't give up and Gogolin was forced to make a nice save at the 11:40 mark, tipping a shot over the cross bar.

The second half was less eventful but Danvers did manage to cut the margin to two when Baker beat goalie Annie Costello on a penalty kick at 22:18. Danvers wouldn't score again, and the Sachems are one win from their goal.

Photo by Bob Holmes