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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
The Medfield High girls soccer team has had a season that each player will long remember after having played in Gillette Stadium and posting a 12-3-3 regular season record. The greatest achievement and memory that the ladies from Medfield will have from this season, however, is their impressive run deep into the state tournament.
Following wins over Dartmouth (4-0) in round one, and Foxborough (3-2, PK’s) in the quarterfinals, the sixth-seeded Warriors took to the field on Friday afternoon at Milford High School in the MIAA Division II South Sectional semifinals against number 15 seed Canton.
The Warriors got off to a bit of a slow start, falling behind 3-1 to the Bulldogs. However, Medfield responded with a 6-0 run beginning in the final minutes of the first half and continuing into the second half. The rally led to Medfield snatching a 7-3 victory and advancing to the south sectional finals against top-seeded Hingham.
After Canton jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the first half, Alanna Cooney cut the deficit to 2-1 with 16:17 remaining in the half when she broke in down the right side and fired a shot short side to beat the Bulldog keeper.
Canton responded with a goal to go back up by two at 3-1 just two and a half minutes following the Cooney strike, but the Warriors stayed composed and continued to fight.
The Warriors were rewarded for their hard work with a goal from Annie Phipps with 3:05 remaining in the half, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Less than two minutes after the Phipps goal, Taylor Sherman lobbed a shot over the head of the Canton goalkeeper in stoppage time to knot the game at three and completely change the momentum of the game heading into the half.
Medfield came out of the second half determined to finish the job of coming all the way back from two goals down. Alanna Cooney netted her second goal of the game with 25 minutes left off of a header thanks to a beautiful cross by Sherman, and the Warriors took their first lead of the game at 4-3.
Just over six minutes following the Cooney header, Medfield struck again with a header by Maggie McCarthy to go up 5-3. Casey Chin gave the Warriors some insurance with less than 10 minutes to play with a strike to the near post on a fast break and senior captain Kathryn Giordano added a seventh goal in the game’s final moments to put the win on ice.
At the time of printing, Medfield is scheduled to face top-seeded Hingham at Brockton High School.
