Derryfield girls cornered by Trinity, 4-1

MANCHESTER, NH — Trinity High scored three goals off corner kicks, including a rare “olimpico,” en route to a 4-1 win over cross-town rival Derryfield School, Wednesday afternoon at Derryfield Park.

Trinity played a tight all-around game, building a 4-0 lead midway through the second half. Senior Bella Skogland had a pair of goals to lead the Pioneers. Kaleigh Morris and Amely Collado had the others.

At 7-4-0, Trinity is playing some of its best soccer of the season and appears to be building momentum heading into the Division III Tournament. The Pioneers have won three of their last four games, with their only loss in that stretch coming against unbeaten St. Thomas Aquinas.

“It felt good to get the win. The girls were able to carry over what we’ve been working on since last week. Their hard work is definitely showing up on the scoreboard,” said Trinity Coach Mike Martinez.

After starting the season 4-2-0, Derryfield has dropped five games in a row. Injuries to multiple starters have posed a significant challenge for the Cougars, whose losing streak has included one-goal losses to Hopkinton (10-1-1) and Campbell (8-3-0).

“We’ve got four starters that are out. We’re waiting for medical reports on a few of them,” said Derryfield Coach Joel Hatin. So we have to look down the bench and see what we can do with the players that are available to us. And that’s tough to do against some of the tough teams in this division. If we were 100 percent healthy, we would have given (Trinity) a very good game today.”

Trinity’s midfielders were dominant, controlling the flow of play and keeping Derryfield pinned in its own end for minutes at a time. Senior Addie Bosworth and junior Syd Demers were huge in the middle of the pitch.

When Derryfield managed to generate an attack, they ran into the wall that is the Trinity backs, led by Morris at stopper and senior captain Ava Houde. The spacing, quickness and anticipation of the Pioneer’ backs kept the passing and shooting lanes clogged for Derryfield.

“We’ve had a pretty standard philosophy all season that its our defense that leads into our offense,” said Martinez. “We’re sitting there and trying to make it so the other team turns the ball over and transition to the offense.”

Trinity grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first half on goals by Skogland (off a corner) and Collado. It might have been more but for the solid play of Derryfield keeper Bre McCabe.

In the 49th minute, Trinity extended its lead to 3-0 on one of the rarest scoring plays in soccer — the olimpico. In simplest terms, an olimpico occurs on a corner, when the ball is kicked from the corner and winds up in the net without touching another player, except the keeper.

In this case, the person taking the corner was Morris. Ironically, she didn’t get off one of her best kicks. It was hard but only got about a foot off the ground, skittering toward the near post. McCabe went to defend the post and appeared to have a clean play. But the ball somehow scooted through her hands and rolled into the net.

The Pioneers would make it 4-0 in the 53rd minute, again of a corner. This time it was Bosworth taking the corner and lofting a ball right in front of the net. McCabe tried to pounce on the ball but couldn’t make smother it. Skogland was able to get a foot on the loose ball and drill it home.

Derryfield was finally able to generate some prime offensive chances in the final 15 minutes, with several near misses by Sam Chappell, Abby Steward and Teagan Peabody. Finally, in the 71st minute, Peabody found the back off the net off a feed from Steward.

Derryfield and Trinity will meet in a rematch on Oct. 20 at the Cougars’ home pitch. In the meantime, Trinity is back in action Saturday at Conant. Derryfield will look to snap its five-game losing skid Friday at home against Bishop Brady.