NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- The Mount Everett girls soccer team Friday dominated play for 60 minutes and held off host McCann in the last 20 for a 1-0 victory.
Mariah Broderick knocked home the rebound of a Logan Rathbun shot in the 51st minute to break a scoreless tie and give the Eagles their first victory of the season.
It was a moral victory of sorts for McCann Tech (0-5), which allowed 21 goals in its first four games.
“We just got beat 7-0 yesterday with six goals in the second half,” McCann coach Mike Dowling said. “To come out here and play like that when we’ve got a whole new formation, I’ll take it.
“We’ve got four midfielders now. My seniors are in the middle trying to control the play. It’s not going to lead to a lot of goals, but we had a couple of chances today.”
Most of the chances in the first half came from Mount Everett’s offense, but the Eagles could not solve freshman keeper Sarah Fortini, who made nine of her 17 saves before half-time.
McCann’s best opportunity to score came midway through the first half off the toe of Julia Esoldi, but Madison Ullrich (four saves) made a leaping stop to deflect the ball into the crossbar.
That came just before the skies opened up and drenched the teams for the rest of the afternoon, and rain may have played a role in the game’s only goal.
Fortini, making her first start in net, did a good job controlling rebounds for most of the match, but she gave up a second-half opportunity with Broderick on the doorstep, and the eighth-grader put the ball in the back of the net.
“I think on a dry field, she wouldn’t have given up that rebound,” Dowling said. “But those were the conditions. We could have a couple down here, too, because of the rain.”
In fact, moments after Mount Everett took the lead, Ullrich allowed a rebound at the other end, but the Eagles’ junior was able to scramble onto the ball and avoid the damage.
“We were glad to come home with a win, but also know we should have played better and won by more,” Mount Everett coach Jessica Murtagh said. “We still have a lot of work to do offensively.”
Mount Everett goes to Granby on Saturday.
McCann will look for its first win on Monday when it hosts Greenfield.
“All in all, I’m pretty happy with the girls,” Dowling said. “I thought they came back and played well. This was our third game this week. After getting punched in the face a couple of times this week and coming back and playing hard against Mount Everett, it shows nothing but improvement.”
