Masalsky Notches Shutout in Dedham Girl's Soccer Win

In a tale of two halves at Friday afternoon, team held on for the 1-0 victory over Wellesley that left both teams battered and bruised.

“It was too physical,” said Dedham coach Don Savi after the game, “We definitely don’t like the physical stuff.”

The aggressive play increased dramatically in the second half when the Wellesley back four defenders moved up to add pressure in the midfield. Coupled with an aggressive play from both sides on 50/50 balls in the open field, both teams had players leave the field due to injury.

“We want to clean that up,” said Savi, after watching his own daughter collide with Wellesley goalie Anne Stewart in the second half. “We’d rather just play soccer.”

Stewart made a tremendous save in the first half when she dove to her left to stop a strike that would have put the Marauders up by two goals.

“I wished we were up more than 1-0 at the half,” said Savi, “Wellesley is a talented team and they don’t give up.”

Dedham was able to break through the Wellesley scoring line at the 38th minute of the first half, when Dedham senior Jenna Savi sent a beautiful ball ahead to a streaking Sabrina Ferhani who was able to get by a defender as well as Stewart for the only tally of the day.

“We had a momentum swing, then Jenna just saw Sabrina,” said Dedham junior forward Emily Hill. “We caught them off because they were playing a flat four defense.”

Savi almost scored herself in the second half when a great passing ball outside the box left her with a great opportunity to finish.

Stewart had other ideas.

The senior goalie made a very aggressive play to come out of net and cut down the angle, which resulted in a violent collision.

Stewart came up with the ball, but was forced to leave the game by the officials after contact was made with her head.

“Anne’s been awesome,” said Wellesley coach Kristin Walsh. “She has stepped up, she has kept us in a lot of games.”

Dedham was able to add some pressure with Jenna Savi placing several corner kicks and free kicks up and around the net, but Wellesley wouldn’t break, in fact the Raiders controlled the ball in the Dedham zone most of the second half.

“First half we were playing on our heels, a little bit nervous,” said Walsh. “Once we settled down and started to win the 50/50 balls and got some momentum they got their confidence to move forward and kept the pressure on.”

Dedham spread the field in the second half and tried to eliminate Wellesley’s crossing game and was successful in limiting the scoring chances on Dedham goalie Ellen Masalsky who made eight saves for the shutout.

“Basically we tried to keep them as wide as possible trying to take away the crosses because they love the crossing game,” said coach Savi.

“We are starting to gel as a team,” said Hill. “We are not a one man show, everyone is working together.”

Dedham moved to 2-0 on the year, while the Raiders dropped to 1-1 following their 3-0 win over Framingham earlier in the week.

“We are really a close knit team,” said Wellesley captain Caroline Bonee, “and we are going into the next couple of games with a positive attitude.”

Field Hockey

Wellesley 2, Dedham 1

Kerrianne Downing scored the Marauders lone goal with 4:27 remaining in the first half. Jamie Carty made 16 saves in net for Dedham, who fell to 1-1 on the season.

Boys Soccer

Wellesley 3, Dedham 1

Dedham goalie Ben Walsh played well in net for the Marauders, said coach Paul Podolski, but Wellesley was able to get two headers off set pieces past him. Mac Farrell was credited with the lone Dedham goal. The Marauders fell to 0-2 on the season.