Girls' Soccer Shows Promise in Tough Loss Versus Brooks

NORTH ANDOVER, MA - Facing the Brooks School Wednesday afternoon, the girls’ soccer team took another loss in this season’s rocky start. However, the scoreboard did not show Big Red’s huge leap in the positive direction, and the promising talent of this year’s younger group.Within the first five minutes of the game, the players could tell that Exeter and Brooks were both quite evenly matched teams.Slight alterations to girls’ formation added a new dynamic and aided in fostering a charged energy amongst the players. “We had a new lineup that allowed us to be more defensive,” lower Hailey Hudson said. “This created a huge improvement from the last game.”The first half continued at a quick pace. Exeter’s defensive side played well, remaining solid and allowing only one goal in.The second half progressed at the same rapid speed, and Big Red scored their first goal off of a corner kick from senior Danielle Sim. Senior captain Susannah Gray was able to head the ball into the net to complete a remarkable play.“Her goal raised the intensity,” Hudson said. “The rest of the game was a competitive battle.”Despite the exciting shot, the energy began to wind down for Big Red and the opposing team was able to gain the upper hand.“Their other two goals were undeserved and we could have kept better composure towards the end,” senior Mairead McCarthy said, “but we played a lot better than we’ve been playing in our previous games.”In the end, Exeter was not able to regain their footing, falling by a final score of 1-3.“Since we’re such a young group this year, we’re still struggling to find our flow as a team,” Sim said. With the loss of six graduated seniors and the addition of six preps, this year, the team is still working on finding a balance and coming together as a cohesive entity.“We all played very hard today but [lower] Jacie Lemos, [senior] Sammi deJong and [prep] Grace Pratt played really well,” Sim added.McCarthy also felt that certain players stood out in Wednesday’s game.“Grace Pratt had a lot of speed in the back and Hailey Hudson really played well in the back too. Jacie was solid as always and Margaret Coogan was a threat on offense,” she said.As for future games, the team will regroup at practice and focus to find their solid ground. With an already strong defensive line, the team must work on scoring goals and completing plays.“I think it is crucial to stay compact as in a defensive standpoint and put key players such as Dani and Jacie on the offense so we can give them balls over the top of the opposing teams’ defense and allow for them to run onto the ball and potentially score,” Hudson said. Sim agreed that the team’s most important area of improvement is working on completing offensive shots.This Saturday, the girls’ team will be competing at home against Deerfield Academy in the hopes of earning their first W of the season.