FOXBORO, Mass. – Foxboro entered its first round playoff game on Sunday morning at Sam Berns Community Field having won eight straight games. The Warriors carried momentum and the the experience of battling the top teams in the Hockomock League into the postseason and it all paid off.
Three different players found the back of the net for Foxboro in a 3-0 win over No. 27 Middleboro in the Div. 3 Round of 32. The Warriors dominated the first half and then held off the Sachems in the second, showing defensive resolve and solid goaltending from Lilli Jones to preserve the shutout.
“If you look at brackets and the power rankings, we’re playing some of the best teams in the [state] and it absolutely helps each of us in the Hock when we get to the postseason,” Foxboro coach Melissa Bordieri said.
She added, “We worked hard on spreading the field and using deceptive moves up top and using the outside of the circle on our corners, trying to get (their goalie) to move, and I think that worked really, really well.”
The hosts started the game strongly. Foxboro had seven corners in the first half to none for Middleboro and Jones spent most of the opening half hour as a spectator trying to see what was happening up the other end of the field through the bright glare of the morning sun.
After eight minutes, the pressure turned into the opening, and as it turned out game-winning goal. From a corner, Kate Collins started the play with a pass out to her sister Mary Collins, who fired a low shot into a crowd of bodies in front of goal. The ball sat on the doorstep for a couple seconds before Jennifer Gallagher was able to knock it across the line.
Foxboro nearly added a second just before the first quarter ended. Mya Waryas drove down the right wing and forced Isabelle Mosley into a good kick save to keep the ball from Camryn Collins, who was waiting at the back post to tip it in.
The second quarter was even more one-way traffic. Foxboro created a series of penalty corners and had the Sachems pinned down in the defensive half of the field. Mary Collins blasted another shot from a corner just wide of the post, then Collins’ shot fell to Gallagher who brought a good save out of Mosely.
Ten minutes into the quarter, the second goal finally went in. From a corner, Collins was again the impetus with a shot into the mix in the crease. This time it was Kate Collins who was on hand to get the ball across the line and give Foxboro an important cushion.
A two-goal lead proved to be comforting for the Warriors because Middleboro flipped the game on its head in the third. Suddenly, it was the Sachems on the front foot. The visitors created five corners in the third quarter alone and finally drew the first two saves out of Jones. Foxboro’s defense, including Catherine Cotter, Paige Simoneau, Valerie Beigel, and Isabella Richardson, stood tall against the pressure to keep Middleboro off the board.
“We came off of our game plan,” Bordieri said about the change in momentum in the third quarter. “They were plugging up the middle of the field and we didn’t recognize exactly what they were doing and we kept trying to force the ball in the middle. It took them forever to recognize where the space was and where they could go and stop forcing the play.”
Five minutes into the fourth, Foxboro nearly put the game away but Mary Collins saw her shot from the top of the circle slip through her sister’s legs and get tipped just wide of the post by the Middleboro goalie.
Just two minutes later, the Sachems came close to halving the Foxboro lead. In the wake of another corner, Middleboro was able to get the ball into the crease and Jones was able to scramble and make an acrobatic kick save to keep the ball out and preserve the shutout.
“When it called for it, she made some really big saves because it was dicey in there,” Bordieri said of Jones.
That save proved to be crucial, as just a minute later Foxboro went on the break to close out the win. Waryas made the rush down the right wing and sent a pass into the middle. Camryn Collins was able to redirect the pass to the back post where Mia DiNunzio had made a late run and tapped in the third.
Foxboro (14-5-0), the No. 6 seed, will host No. 11 Dighton-Rehoboth, which beat Weston in double overtime, in the Round of 16 this week.