Big Win for MHS Field Hockey Team

To be a quality team, you’ve got to beat quality teams, and 's varsity field hockey team came up big with a 1-0 win Tuesday over Danvers, one of the top teams in the Northeastern Conference.

“Good team game for the girls today, lot of support on defense, we played with unity on the field,” head coach Linda Collins said. “This was a good test for us, we played them much better than the first time (a 2-1 loss in Danvers on opening day last month)."

Danvers came into the game with one loss on the season, falling 3-1 against Beverly. The Panthers are another of the top-tier teams that Marblehead has been chasing for the past few years.

The Falcons (9-2-0) were unable to get anything by Marblehead goaltender Zoe Weems, who stopped several point blank shots from the Danvers forward line on the way to her fourth shut-out of the season.

“We always try to have at least one defenseman behind me at all times,” Weems said. “The girls did a good job covering at the posts and got on the loose balls in front.”

Weems made two huge saves with less than 20 seconds to go in the first half, one off Ashlee Ataya and the second off Meghan Powers.

“Huge saves, really big,” Collins said. “If Zoe doesn’t stop those shots it’s a completely different game heading into the second half and who knows what would have happened.”

Marblehead scored the only goal of the game with 13:15 to play in the first half. Maggie Forbes got the ball to Tyler Phillips outside the circle to the left of Danvers goalie Gabi Torchia and she blasted a shot through traffic that found the back of the net.

“The girls confidence level has improved so much since the first Danvers game,” Collins said. “We had a few bodies out because of injuries and sickness, and people were in new positions for us, but the girls did exactly what we asked them to do today, they really played well.”

Shannon O’Callaghan, Forbes, Casey Collins, Mimi Goetz and Ellie Rousseau all had a hand in helping Weems hold the Falcons scoreless, especially late in the second half with Danvers pressing hard to tie the score.

Danvers called a time-out with six minutes to play, but Weems was determined to keep the ball out of the Marblehead net.

“I said to the girls in front, that they’re not scoring in the final six minutes, there’s no way that’s happening,” Weems said.

“We have to play with the level of intensity that we played with today to be successful,” Collins said.

Marblehead is right back at it this afternoon, hosting Malden in a game 3:45 p.m. at .