By Mike Rubin
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After a promising start to the season, Somerville girls soccer suffered a bit of a letdown. Following a 2-1 win over Matignon in Wednesday’s non-league opener, the Highlanders faced a rude awakening en route to a 4-0 defeat to Medford. The Highlanders stand at 1-1 overall.
In the Matignon win, sophomore sensation Natalie Henrique fared solid, delivering an early first half goal as the Highlanders staked out to a 1-0 lead. On a through ball from Eimy Bonilla, Henrique connected on a blistering shot that landed in the back of the net.
Following a Matignon goal, both teams were deadlocked at 1-1 before Henrique emerged with the game winning goal at the 10:00 mark of the second half. Off a pass from Tayla Plett, Henrique connected on a through pass and recorded the eventual game winning goal.
Other key contributions for the Highlanders included Cassie Marsden,and Marrara Goncalves along with newcomers Sasha Garczyski and freshman Rachel Berry. Minding the net, new goalkeeper Kelsey Garrity stopped six shots to preserve the win.
“It was a tight game that took a lot of team focus to get the most out of, and it was a good introduction to high school soccer for several of the new arrivals to the team,” said coach Jason Lenicheck. “Hopefully we’ll be able to build on what we’ve identified as strengths and correct some of what we found to be weaknesses.”
Faced with a shorthanded lineup, the Highlanders succumbed to four early goals as Medford sailed to a 4-0 win on Sunday.
“It took the first 15 minutes of the game for the team to start sorting out some of the changes that were required due to having several starters missing from the match, and Medford took advantage of those minutes by jumping out to a set of four early goals,” said Lenicheck.
“Our offense was stymied for much of the first 50 minutes or so, but as the team grew more confident and comfortable at making a series of short, simple passes instead of just lobbing the ball deep up the field, things started to look good. It’s obviously a tougher game when you’re missing two starting forwards but strong teams find ways to get past those kinds of things.”
Despite the loss, Lenicheck is optimistic of the Highlanders’ turnaround.
“I hope that we’ll keep up the good work that we’ve put into training over the past week and will begin to find those ways,” said Lenicheck. “Our young players are being asked to make the jump to high school soccer rather abruptly, but I believe that they have the talent to make that jump. They just have to settle into letting the ball do a bit more of the work for them offensively.”