Beauchemin's Big Day Downs Drury
ADAMS, Mass. — The Drury girls' soccer team showed up a little late to Monday night's game with rival Hoosac Valley. Hurricanes' striker Danielle Beauchemin was in the game from start to finish, however, scoring three goals and collecting one assist in Hoosac's 4-1 victory at Renfrew Field.Beauchemin and her fellow Hurricanes took advantage of a slow start by the Blue Devils, scoring a pair of first-half goals that paved the way for Hoosac (9-3, 6-1) earning a season sweep against its neighbors to the north. Drury (3-8-1, 3-3-1) won the first two meetings between the two squads last year, but the Hurricanes have since rallied back to take three straight matches, starting with last November's 3-2 win in the first round of the Division 2 Western Mass. tournament.
If the Blue Devils are looking for what went wrong on Monday, they can certainly point to the first half in which they were outshot 11-0. Despite its inability to generate an offensive attack, Drury hung tough on defense thanks to some nice saves by senior goalie Ali Tatro. Hoosac eventually found a hole in the Devils' defense in the 22nd minute, however, when Beauchemin found a wide-open Jasmine Knapp on the right sideline. Tatro came 25 yards off her line to challenge Knapp, but the freshman forward beat her to the punch and tapped her shot into the open net.
Beauchemin then made it 2-0 just over a minute later, controlling a ball at the top of the box, making a move around a pair of defenders and shooting into the far-right corner of the net. The score might have been even worse for Drury, had Tatro, who made six of her 13 saves in the first half, not broke up a breakaway attempt by Knapp with a minute left before halftime.
"The frustrating part is that we continue to make the same mistakes over and over again," Blue Devils head coach Molly Meczywor said. "The first goal was because of our weak-side marking. [Knapp] was on the outside by about 20 yards. We've talked to the kids a lot about not watching the ball. You've got to watch the whole play develop, have your head on a swivel and continue to move. Three out of their four goals, we weren't there on the weak side."
Whoever showed up for Drury in the first half disappeared shortly after halftime, though, as the visitors began to carry the play. Less than two minutes into the second half, senior Danielle Racette took the Devils' first shot of the game when she missed on a header off of one of Drury's five corner kicks in the period. Junior Morgan Lamarre also had a few chances to score on crosses into the box, but the Hurricanes' defense remained strong in front of sophomore keeper Megan Richardson (two saves).
All of the Devils' hard work eventually paid off in the 65th minute, however, when junior Cori Ghidotti blasted a shot on net from the right endline. Richardson laid out to make the diving save, but the ball bounced to her left, allowing senior Chelsea DeGroff to tap it inside the left post.
Thanks to Tatro making several key diving saves in the second half, Drury still had more than 15 minutes left to net the game-tying goal. A timeout by Meczywor after her team's only goal was intended to pump the Blue Devils up but instead allowed the 'Canes to focus in on what they needed to do to win the game.
"We clearly dominated in the first half," Hoosac head coach Blair Mahar said. "I said to the girls to be prepared, though, because you know how Drury comes out. They always come out strong, they get fired up and they did. They controlled the second half, but I thought we began to pick it up more in the last 10 minutes after they called the timeout.
"We got the adrenaline back, we had a chat and I think you could see the fire in the girls' eyes. They were hungry, and they just went and took care of business from there."
As long as it took the Devils to get back in the game, it took even less for Beauchemin to knock them out of the match. With just under six minutes left in the game, she took a pass from sophomore Marissa Felter on the right side of the box and fired a shot into the left-corner of the goal. Four minutes later, Beauchemin sealed the deal by dribbling into the goal box and placing a shot inside the right post for her third goal of the game and 10th of the season.
It's Beauchemin's deadly accurate shooting that could make Hoosac a really tough out in the upcoming Western Mass. playoffs.
"She can hold the ball, she can dribble the ball, she can defend the ball and use her body and she has that awesome shot on goal," Mahar said. "She can find that corner [of the goal] down there every time. It was a great job by Danielle tonight.
While she did admit that her team came out flat in the first half, Meczywor said she was happy with the way her team responded after halftime. The Drury coach said she made some changes in her lineup in recent weeks and was pleased with the play of Racette and Ghidotti in the middle of the field and with the effort of Tatro and sweeper Kasha Wissman on the defensive end.
"The thing that is really positive about this team is that they continue to work," Meczywor said. "They show up to practice every single day, they work hard and push each other. They're still trying to do the little things right, and you really can't complain as a coach."
Both teams return to action on Tuesday. The Blue Devils host Mount Greylock at 4 p.m., while the 'Canes play at Mount Everett at 4:30.