The crowd was intense with a lot of blue and gold lining the bleachers under the lights at World War II Veterans Memorial Field, but the road fans would be quieted very early as Northeastern University-commit Kellie Stigas scored just three minutes into the game.
Canton (4-1-3) would not need another, as the Bulldogs pulled out a 1-0 victory against Davenport division rival Foxboro (5-2-1) on Thursday night.
Head coach Fior Griffin credited the early goal for giving the Bulldogs the confidence to go on and get the win after a couple of tough results over the past few weeks.
“We’ve been right there in a lot of games, getting shots on goals, corners, and just not scoring,” she remarked. “So, it was good to come out and get the goal early on.”
The goal stunned the Warriors, who came out fired up in front of their vocal support. After the opener, Canton took control of the game and pushed the Warriors back. According to head coach Melissa Bordieri, Foxboro struggled to get into the game in the opening half.
“It took us a really long time to kind of relax and play the game we know how,” she said. “You know, pass the ball out not just hit it out, moving with poise and attacking with poise. We definitely didn’t do that. We let them take us out of our game.”
Foxboro would eventually settle down and start to give Canton problems. The best chance of the game for the warriors came in the opening minutes of the second half, when a shot from a tight angle was kicked away by Canton goalie Emily Buckley. Midway through the half, senior captain Kate Notarangelo also had a long shot miss narrowly wide that Buckley did not see until it was already past the post.
Bordieri rued those missed opportunities. She commented, “I wish we had more corner opportunities. We had two in the first and two in the second – that’s four opportunities there. Like I told them, we need to capitalize and follow through and not just waste them away.”
Canton had several chances in both halves to put the game away but were repelled by Foxboro goalie Melissa Almeida, who in one sequence made it look more like ice hockey season than fall as she scrambled to block multiple chances from inside the crease.
Griffin noted, “Their goalie did a nice job of stopping the shots. A couple of them looked like they were going in.”
Bordieri added, “She did really well. There was one I definitely thought was going in.”
She was disappointed that the team could not come through in the end. Bordieri said, “It was 1-0 all the way and that’s really disappointing, I’m not going to lie.”
Canton started to control the midfield in the final minutes as Foxboro pushed forward. The Bulldogs had the advantage of having Stigas in the center to control the ball and make the right pass. According to Griffin, “She has great stick work, is a great leader on the field, and knows the game really well, but as a whole we have a very talented senior class. We’re very lucky to have her.”
She continued, “I thought we did a good job of being aggressive and intense but being purposeful. We were passing with a purpose. When they needed to slow it down and take a step back and then make the good pass; I thought they did that instead of forcing things.”
The victory keeps Canton in the conversation for the Davenport division crown. Coming into the night, the Bulldogs trailed division-leading Oliver Ames which was still unbeaten at 5-0-1. Griffin was happy to see her team recognize the importance of the game and not be overwhelmed.
“They came out fired up and knew how important the game was today and they just played it for 60 minutes. I’m very pleased where we’re at.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.