Super Sophomore Paces Patriots' girls' soccer victory

Concord-Carlisle High School's girls' soccer coach Nancy Slocum believes her talented forward, Andrea O'Brien, might be the Dual County League's best.

Notching three assists along with the game's first goal in 4-2 home victory against Wayland High School, O'Brien helped prove her coach's case.

"We've proven to be a potent scoring force," Slocum said. "It was a good gut check for us."

Only a sophomore, O'Brien was the most opportunistic player on the field throughout Tuesday's 80-minute match, taking advantage every time the ball fell in her possession.

With 14 goals and seven assists on the season, she leads the Dual County League in goals.  She's also the fifth leading scorer in Eastern Massachusetts and has already surpassed her point total from last season.

Aside from the four goals peppered in equal intervals throughout the match, the greatest advantage for the Patriots (7-0-1) was their defense, which forced eight offside calls and refused to allow Wayland's attack to muster any strength.  

"I really think we have one of the best defenses in the Dual County League," Slocum said. "We've really been working on our team concept and defending as a whole unit of 11. Give credit to Wayland, they tested us, but I was really proud of how our defense hung together."

Just three minutes into the game, O'Brien received a pass from senior forward Posie Holmes and was able to penetrate the middle of Wayland's box, scoring on a low shot to the net's right side. 

Twenty-six minutes later, with O'Brien dribbling up the left side and crossing a perfect ball onto midfielder Lindsay Cook's left foot, Concord-Carlisle struck again, taking a two-goal lead. It was the senior's first goal of the season.

"I love how [Cook] controlled it, and hit it not as hard as she could," Slocum said. "We've been working on that."

With only three minutes remaining in the half, Wayland scored on a careening ball that bounced over freshman goalie Abbey Ojemann's head and onto the foot of the Wayland forward who tapped it in.

But Concord-Carlisle struck back in the opening moments of the second half on a beautiful lead pass from O'Brien to Holmes, who blew by the goalie and ran it in.

A co-captain, Holmes had missed the previous two games with a strained hip flexor but made the most of her comeback performance.

"She's the engine that runs our team," Slocum said. "She's what gives us that punch. It was great to see her get that goal after sitting out those two games."

After another Wayland goal cut the lead to one, the Patriots tried to burn some clock by dribbling the ball into the corner.  What resulted was more than they could ask for when freshman Allie Barrett found O'Brien, who then slid a pass to sophomore Maila Kodas for the game sealing goal.

Up next for Concord is a home game on Thursday against Waltham High School.