By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
Dover-Sherborn girls varsity soccer (2–1–0) played at Westwood (4–1–0) on Thursday afternoon, and the evenly-played game was reflected by the tied score.
Although Westwood’s captain Izzy Hanson scored the game’s first goal within minutes, Dover-Sherborn ultimately left the first half on top, captain Raina Patel having earned a hat trick before the time was up. A number of fans, however, vocalized their belief that the third goal had been offside and were displeased that it had not been called back, but felt justified when an offside call against Dover-Sherborn was made a few minutes later.
The second half, however, went to Westwood. Like with the first half, a goal was scored within the first few minutes, this time by Westwood midfielder Bella Wen. Ten minutes later, fellow junior Lindsey Bannister tied the game to the great excitement of Westwood fans. Although most of the second half remained, neither team was able to put away another goal after this, due to a few key saves by each goalkeeper.
About midway through the half, a collision in the goalie box resulted in Dover-Sherborn’s goalkeeper Piper Abbett going down. Although she seemed to walk the injury off after a minute, she was taken off of the field, likely because of the rule that a player has to go off if the coaches come on the field to check on them. While fans clapped for Abbett, senior Alexis Weiss subbed in to finish the game in net, managing to keep the score locked at 3–3.
Although there were some fans protesting a few calls, and the game was not lacking in physicality, sportsmanship was still present in the final minutes of the game when Dover-Sherborn’s captain, senior Kaitlyn Shanahan, called for a ref who had not seen that a Westwood player remained on the ground after a scrum in front of the net.
Dover-Sherborn will not face Westwood again this season, but the Raiders’ next games will be: A home game on Thursday the 25th at 4:30 on the Farm Street Field against Norwood; Tuesday the 30th at 4:15 at Dedham High’s Multipurpose Field; and home again on Friday, October 3rd at 6:00 against Natick at the Nora Searle Turf Field. The team’s full schedule can be found at: www.arbiterlive.com.
