LYNN - For the first time in what has been a remarkable season, the Peabody High girls soccer team was unable to get its explosive offense going. A bigger, more experienced and top-seeded Acton-Boxboro team ousted the Tanners, 3-0, in the Division 1 North final at Manning Field last night.
It was the first loss for the No. 3 seeded Tanners (19-1-2), and the 20th win of the season (no losses, no ties) for the senior-laden Colonials. They are led by nine upperclassmen, including Penn State-bound striker Hayley Brock, who scored a goal and assisted on two others.
After upsetting Winchester in the semifinals with three second half quick strikes, fans kept waiting for the Tanners to detonate, but it didn't happen.
"This has been an awesome year, and we kept fighting right to the end," said Peabody coach Dennis Desroches, whose team had scored 15 goals in the three previous tournament games. Acton-Boxboro is a very good team and it did a nice job switching fields to keep us off balance.
"Our passing game picked up in the last 15 minutes of the first half and we had a chance to punch one in but couldn't do it. Then they scored their second goal - that was the big difference. We have nothing to hang our heads about; it was a great season and they never stopped working."
The opportunity Desroches referred to came in the first minute of the second half when Colonial goalie Jessie Wiggins charged out of her net to grab a long shot by Peabody freshman Victoria Digiacomo. Wiggins collided with one of her defenders and the ball came loose. The Tanners swarmed in trying to get a foot on the bouncing ball to tie the game, but A-B's Grace Wilson booted it away from the net.
Acton-Boxboro got on the board in the 24th minute when Marianne Ritter headed a corner shot by Brock into the corner of the net out of the reach of Tanner goalie Brienna Griffin. They added two more in the span of 1:11 early in the second half to take control of the game. Brock head-manned the ball to Danielle Cremmen, who drilled a low shot into the left corner in the 42nd minute, and then Brock, who is on the US National team, made a nice run to go in alone on Griffin and fired a rocket into the left corner in the 43rd minute.
"They're a very strong team and one of the bigger ones we've faced," said Tanner junior captain Angela Ellison. "We gave it our all; tried our best, but we couldn't find our offensive rhythm. We were pulled out of our positions a bit tonight. We'll be back next year. We're all looking forward to going even further, but we'll take it one game at a time like we did this season."
Peabody had more speed, but the Dual County league champs relied on a very patient, ball control game to neutralize that asset. They were content to play keep away and prevent Digiacomo and fellow freshman sensation Hayley Dowd from getting off good shots. Dowd was double teamed a lot and junior Danielle Scheuer did a good job marking her closely.
"I saw Peabody play a couple of times and knew we had to mark No. 21 (Dowd) very closely," said Acton-Boxboro coach Lee Billiard, whose team moves on to the Eastern Mass final on Thursday in Weymouth. "We usually doubled her, and Danielle did a great job staying right with her. We didn't want to let her run free.
"For the first 20 minutes we concentrated on controlling the ball and working it side to side," added Billiard. "After that they caught up and we weren't able to do it, but we went back to our plan after we got the three goal lead. Part of our game plan was to eliminate Peabody's threats, and we felt we could do that if we played to our strengths."
Peabody limited the Colonials to six shots in the first half, relying on the strong defense that has worked all season. Cayla Bucci made an outstanding play early on to block a Brock shot. After the two quick strikes early in the second half, Acton-Boxboro was content to pass the ball around instead of trying to make runs. The Tanners didn't have many good scoring opportunities all game.
Late in the first half Emily Manoogian took a free kick from the 35-yard line that Wiggins managed to get her fingertips on to knock over the net. Later in the game Digiacomo made a nifty move around a defender and drilled a low shot on net that Wiggins pounced on.
"She didn't have to make an awful lot of saves, but they had a couple of good chances, and Jessie came up big," said Billiard.
The end came a little earlier than the Tanners hoped, but the future looks very bright.
