Late Surge Propels Girls' Soccer Past Wilmington 3-0

After a back-and-forth first half Monday, Megan Hennessey found teammate Alix Curtin for a goal in the 56th minute to break a scoreless tie with visiting Wilmington.

Hennessey, a junior center midfielder, delivered a perfectly-placed lob pass over Wilmington’s defense to Curtin’s feet. Curtin, a freshman striker, then rifled a shot past Wilmington goalkeeper Sarah Luz to finish the play.

The pretty goal seemed to spark the 8-2-2 Sachems, who controlled the game from then on and scored twice more for a 3-0 win.

“It took kind of an extraordinary goal to get the dam to open up a little bit,” said Winchester coach Chris Scanlon, who went out of his way to praise Wilmington’s defense.

Just four minutes later, in the 60th minute, senior Lauren Valdario followed up a shot by junior Julia Staffiere to put Winchester ahead 2-0. Then, with five minutes remaining, Valdario took a pass from Hennessey on a short corner and lofted the ball just inside the far post to make the final 3-0.

Although Winchester won by a decisive margin, it was Wilmington, now 5-3-4, which would’ve taken control of the game early in the second half if Winchester goalkeeper Deirdre Macrorie hadn’t come up with a few key saves.

Ten minutes after the break, Wilmington’s Jackie Kennedy blocked an attempted clear by Macrorie, but a sliding Macrorie deflected Kennedy’s follow-up shot out of bounds. Three minutes later, Wilmington’s Rachel Grabar fired a close range blast but right at Macrorie, who was able to corral it in. Three minutes after that, Wilmington was down 1-0.

Winchester will host winless Reading (0-7-3) at 3:45 p.m. Thursday. Wilmington will have another tough challenge when it faces undefeated Stoneham (7-0-4) at 6 p.m. Thursday at home.