HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SOCCER: West Bridgewater's historic season comes to an end
WOBURN — All good things must come to an end.
Regardless of Tuesday’s result in the Division 4 state semifinal against Hamilton-Wenham, that inevitable truth was coming sooner than later for the West Bridgewater High girls soccer team.
The Wildcats were hoping to stretch the program’s longest season ever (Tuesday was the team’s first trip to a state semifinal) a few more days to Saturday’s state final, but that was not in the cards. The No. 6-seeded Wildcats fell to No. 2 Hamilton-Wenham, 3-1.
“It just didn’t fall our way,” said WB co-coach Michelle DeCastro.
“We didn’t capitalize on some of our opportunities,” said WB’s other co-coach, Kyla Daley. “(Hamilton-Wenham) were definitely a strong team.”
More: HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER: South Shore state semifinal scores and highlights
The Generals will play top-seeded Cohasset in the Div. 4 final on Saturday at noon at Manning Field in Lynn.
Against Hamilton-Wenham, WB trailed for much of the day. Nora Gamber put the Generals up 1-0 in the 18th minute on a penalty kick.
More: HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SOCCER: Cat Herman starring out of position for D-4 final-bound Cohasset
Despite their best efforts, Hamilton-Wenham could not solve WB senior goalkeeper Sophie Roy. She kept the Generals off the board long enough to buy time for freshman Kylie Fuller’s equalizer in the 51st minute.
“They never quit,” said DeCastro of her team. “They had that drive. They wanted to work together for each other as a team.
“Team first was our mentality and never giving up, no quit.”
Roy made several difficult stops during that run. Throughout the day, she was tasked with handling 12 corner kicks and 13 shots on goal.
The tie didn’t last for long, though. In the 62nd minute, Hamilton-Wenham’s Christie Nistl played a pass into the box. Jane Maguire took that pass and found twine for the eventual winner.
The clock didn’t move when play restarted following Maguire’s goal until after Nistl tacked on an insurance tally about two minutes later.
The Wildcats were the lowest seed to reach the Final Four in Div. 4. Of the 20 semifinalists across the five divisions, there were only two No. 6 seeds, one No. 7 and one No. 15.
“We always like being underrated,” said Daley. “We’d rather be the underdog and come back. The girls have grit and they definitely fight to the end. We’d rather be the outlier.”
“We knew we were strong,” said DeCastro of expectations coming into the season. “We took one game at a time throughout the whole season.”
The Wildcats will graduate seven seniors -- Roy, Eva Adams, Natalie Fredericksen, Arianna Georgantas, Brooke Joyce, Madison Morash and Lindsay Vieira.
“We’ve worked with them, many of them, for the last six years or so,” said DeCastro. “Our captains did a really nice job this year. We’ll miss them a lot.”
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: West Bridgewater high girls soccer loses in Division 4 semifinal
