LYNN — Despite a strong second-half effort, the English girls soccer team fell to Winthrop , 4-2, at Manning Field on a rainy Monday afternoon.
The Bulldogs dug themselves a hole early by falling behind 3-0 in the first half, but outscored the Vikings 2-1 in the second 0 minutes.
“It was a terrible first half for us, one where we made mistakes that we never make, so that was tough,” said English coach Ed McNeil. “But to their credit, the girls could’ve quit and they didn’t. We said, ‘let’s come out and win the second half,’ and that’s exactly what we did. It was a good effort.”
Winthrop coach Tracey Martucci was happy with her team’s efforts in the win, especially considering they were playing on a faster track than they’re used to.
“I think we did a good job out there, especially since we don’t play on turf,” said Martucci. “Since we play on a grass field that’s a little smaller than others, sometimes we have a hard time adjusting on the road. But the girls did a great job today.”
The Vikings jumped out to an early lead thanks to a heads-up play by senior captain Francesca Capone. After Winthrop cleared the ball out of its own zone, Capone anticipated the bounce to go over the English defender’s head and got a free run at the net, burying a hard shot in the bottom-left corner of the net to make it 1-0.
The score remained there for the next 20-plus minutes until Winthrop earned a corner kick. Although the ball wasn’t on target and bounced in front of the net, no one from either team could seem to corral it. That is, until Winthrop freshman Maura Dorr found it and slipped a shot past English goalkeeper Tommi Hill (six saves) to go up by two goals.
Six minutes later, Capone scored her second goal of the game on an assist from senior captain Gabby Hinchion and the Vikings went into the half with a 3-goal lead.
“That was big for us to get that third goal before the half,” Martucci said. “We’ve had a couple games this year where we led 2-0 and ended up losing 3-2, so we know that two goals might not always be enough for us.”
But English didn’t quit. The Bulldogs came out in the second half with new energy, earning more scoring opportunities along the way. They finally broke through with about 26 minutes left in the half, when Julianna Perry sent a pass to captain Alexa Zayas. From about 30 yards out, Zayas boomed a huge kick that found its way into the back of the net to get English on the board.
“One of the big moves today was moving Julianna up to offense,” McNeil said. “And I thought she was our best player out there today. She played hard the whole game and ended up with an assist, so it was a great effort from her.”
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Dorr added her second goal of the game for Winthrop on an assist from Capone just 1:15 later, keeping it a three-goal game.
Zayas added another goal with about seven and a half minutes left in the game to make it 4-2, but that was as close as the Bulldogs would come.
Next up for English (3-8) will be Gloucester on Wednesday at Manning.
The Vikings (5-5) will go up against Everett on Thursday.