Maylin Carr keeps a Walpole player from crossing the ball in the first half.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Led by a UConn-bound forward, the Walpole Timberwolves were about as good a winless team as you could find.
But while they scored first last Tuesday night, they couldn’t add to that lead or stave off an eventual Needham Rocket comeback. The Rockets would ultimately take the game 2-1 to bring their record to 2-1-1 and drop Walpole’s to 0-4.
After a pretty uneventful majority of the first half that featured more offsides calls than exciting moments, in the eighteenth minute, Walpole’s Brooke Walonis curled a beautiful ball into the top corner to give Walpole a 1-0 lead. When pressed on how pretty a goal it was, Walpole Coach Callum Maclean acknowledged: “Yeah, that was a terrific strike. She’s an excellent striker and she’s been doing that all season.”
It just wasn’t enough.
While Needham’s Madeline Ledbury had some close calls, including a diving header that went wide and a beautiful flick to Anna McShane that she wasn’t quite ready for, a Jacqueline Pucillo scoring chance was scuttled by a Walpole defender in stoppage time and the game went into the half 1-0 in favor of Walpole.
Down a goal, Needham Coach Carl Tarabelli spoke to his team. “We had to change our mentality to an attacking one. We were playing too cautious and letting them dictate play, so I told them we needed to go forward and take chances, get to the baseline and try to get some corner kicks. And then, ultimately, the game winner came off of a corner kick.”
In the second half, an intercepted pass by Maura Newman eventually led to a scramble and a goal by Maddie Ledbury around the 23rd minute. Soon after, Ledbury would put in a beautiful header off of a corner kick around the 20th minute. From there, Walpole couldn’t muster much offense other than a desperate long shot from Walonis late in the game. Needham went on to win, 2-1.
“The first one was a scrum type of situation, but the second one is what [Ledbury] does," Coach Tarabelli commented. "She tracked the ball in the air and put a clean header into the back of the net.”
After the game, Coach Tarabelli also pointed out that he wasn't surprised to find the Rockets down a goal to the Timberwolves early on, because Walpole is much better than their record indicates.
“We knew they were going to be a battling team. They are strong physically and they play with a purpose. They’re very deceptive; they played three great teams, so 0-4 is not their record. They’re going to be a team we’ll have to contend with again. Their best player is going to UConn up top. She’s legit. We had a man mark her out. But we rose to the occasion, being down 1-0 at half. We didn’t panic, we stayed the course and we were able to comeback in the second half.”
Players he felt stepped up in the game included Samantha Dauria and young Ava Chiappielli, who “is just calm, cool and collected. She doesn’t play like a freshman.”
As for the Timberwolves, frustration was the primary emotion their sideline was dealing with. Mainly, the frustration that they're playing well, but just not winning.
“We're frustrated because the girls are playing very well," said Coach Maclean. "So to come out of the game with no points at all is very disappointing, but they played their hardest. They played well.”
Maclean pointed out that he had a couple JV players playing, and that the Timberwolves’ backup goalkeeper played very well, despite having to face a team of Needham's caliber. Still, the bottom line was that while the team played the way its coach wanted it to, Walpole couldn’t find a way to pick up its first victory.
“They’re playing the way we want them to play, the results just haven’t gone our way. We’ve just got to keep with it. It’s a tough league and no excuses - we’ll just do better the next game.”
