LYNN — In sports, there are some days when a team just comes out flat. According to English girls soccer coach Ed McNeil, that day was Tuesday for the Bulldogs as they fell to Everett, 4-1, at Manning Field.
“It was just one of those days, we just really didn’t play that well,” said McNeil. “Give a lot of credit to Everett, they played hard and out-hustled us, but we had a bad night.”
One of the biggest problems for the Bulldogs was time of possession, a battle that they lost handily to Everett. That problem was magnified by the absence of defender Brooke Zahine, who missed the game due to injury.
“We don’t have a lot of depth this year, so with Brooke out we kind of had to move everyone around and it messed up the rhythm,” McNeil said. “So the combination of people playing out of position and Everett playing a really solid game spelled bad news for us tonight.”
The game didn’t get off to the greatest start for the Bulldogs. Just three minutes into the game, Everett’s Dayeli Garcia picked up a loose ball that dribbled out in front of the net and buried it in the back of the net to give the Crimson Tide an early 1-0 lead.
English kept fighting, with captain Alexa Zayas getting two solid scoring opportunities in the minutes following the Everett goal. After goalie Giselle Sanchez turned both chances away, Everett retook control. Then, with just over three and a half minutes left in the first half, Everett’s Samantha Perkins netted the first of her two goals to put the Crimson Tide up by two.
The Bulldogs did close the half with a spark, however. After taking control of the ball in her own zone, Teressa Demirs took it up the right side and sent a perfect lead pass up the field. Waiting on the other end of the pass was Lucy Quiroa, who ended up with a breakaway chance. She didn’t disappoint, burying her shot in the bottom-left corner of the net to give English life going into halftime.
“Great effort, great passing on that play,” McNeil said of the goal. “We need to keep playing like that.”
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the momentum didn’t carry into the second half. Everett continued to dominate possession right from the start, and 11 minutes into the second half the Crimson Tide struck again. Garcia nearly scored her second goal of the game with a great kick, but it bounced off the right post. But the ball bounced right onto the foot of Everett’s Lorena Sanchez, and she finished her opportunity with an easy goal to make it 3-1.
Just two minutes later, Perkins scored her second goal of the game to all but seal the win for Everett.
Now at 3-6, McNeil feels his team missed a good opportunity to get back to .500 this week.
“This was a tough loss because this would’ve put us at 4-5 going into Thursday with a chance to get back to .500,” he said. “But, we’ve just got to recover from this and get back at it.”
The Bulldogs will host Malden back at Manning Field on Thursday.