Girls Soccer faced Weymouth in their home opener under the lights on Sept. 12. The Rebels held a 1-0 lead during the first half, until the Wildcats put four goals on the scoreboard to clinch their 4-1 victory over the Rebels.
Junior Rebecca Welch put the first goal of the game onto the scoreboard 11 minutes into the game, which put the Rebels up 1-0. Welch seized a breakaway down the right side of the field, followed by a perfect shot to the back of the net.
“We came out strong and possessed the ball with a lot of control throughout the game, despite the tough loss,” senior captain Emerson MacMillan said.
Most of the action took place in the second half, so the rest of the first half was uneventful.
With just 12 minutes into the second half, Weymouth obtained a free kick, which led to an assist and an open shot in front of the net, tying the game 1-1.
Less than two minutes later, Weymouth sent the ball down the sideline to the corner of the field and crossed it into the box at the feet of a teammate, which set her up for a high shot above freshman goalkeeper Catie Powderly’s head. The Wildcats advanced their lead to 2-1.
With exactly 25 minutes left in the second half, Weymouth scored again to the top left corner of the net after faking out Walpole defenders in the box, improving Weymouth’s lead to 3-1.
“Weymouth capitalized on the the few minutes that we were disorganized, and we had difficulty adjusting to their change in intensity,” senior captain Megan Brigham said.
Weymouth’s last goal was scored after beating Walpole down the sideline for a 50/50 ball and crossing it into the box for a shot in the top right corner of the net, which concluded the last of four goals against the Rebels.
Instead of putting their heads down over the loss, the Rebels see this loss as a learning experience. The team changed their formation to a triangle in the center of the field to improve their marking and passing in the offensive end of the field.
“We’ve changed our formation a little to help us improve and being able to get some more shots off will help us for our future games,” MacMillan said.
The Rebels went on to to defeat Wellesley 2-1 in their next game on Sept. 14 with this new formation.
“We won and did very well at Wellesley because we stayed closer with the people we were defending and didn’t let them shoot from the 18,” senior captain Deirdre Erwin said.
The Rebels will have an away game against Norwood on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 3:45.