Milton Girls Soccer Falls to Determined Braintree Squad

After opening up the season with a couple of disappointing losses to Walpole (2-1) and Newton North (2-0), the Braintree High School girls soccer team traveled to  Tuesday night determined to come away with their first win of the season.  

The determination paid off, as the Wamps left Brooks Field with a 2-0 win over the Wildcats.  

“It’s a great starting point,” Braintree coach Matt Freeman said. “There’s a good buzz on the team. The girls are happy. Losing two matches to start the season is a downer. You work hard all summer getting ready for the fall and then you lose your first two matches. It’s frustrating. We’re better than that.”  

The first half was completely controlled by Braintree. The ball was mostly kept in their offensive end with the Wildcats back on their heels trying everything they could to defend the Wamps.

It seemed like every time Milton tried to clear the ball, Braintree was able to keep it in their end. Still, the Wamps couldn’t get one past Milton’s sophomore goalkeeper Juliann Cosetta. The visitor had several good chances in front of the net, notably at the 38:11, 32:41 and 23:31 marks.

On each of those opportunities, senior forward Victoria Russo took the shot.  

“It’s definitely frustrating when you keep shooting and shooting and you can’t score, but that doesn’t mean to not keep trying,” Russo said after the game. “You have to keep shooting and keep thinking you’re going to get it.”  

That’s what Russo did.

With less than a minute to go before the half, Milton made a mistake when they turned the ball over in their own end while trying to clear it. It got kicked around twice, found it’s way to Russo on a bounce and the captain kicked it to the top of the left side of the goal to give the Wamps a 1-0 lead going into the half.  

“They’ve lost two games back-to-back and clearly they’re better than their record indicates,” Milton coach Brian Borde said. “They were committed to possessing the ball. They were committed to creating good opportunities.”  

The second half started off once again with Braintree dominating possession of the ball. They had a few good chances to score, but Cosetta and the Milton defense kept coming up big.  

Midway through the half, Borde switched his team’s alignment to a 4-3-3, something he felt created some problems for them because it gave his an extra player up top. The game did shift some in that the Wildcats were able to move the ball to their offensive end and get a few good looking chances, but they weren’t able to capitalize on them.

Finally, with about 3:30 left in the game, Russo was able to get the ball and outrace everyone up the right side of the field. With just one defender in her midst, she changed speeds, crossed over, took a step by the defender and booted it into the net to give Braintree their second goal and the final score of 2-0.  

“That was great individual play on her part,” Borde said of Russo. “You give good players space and time, ala Tom Brady, they’ll burn you. And she did. She got time and space, and she made the most of it.”  

Both teams are now 1-2 on the season.

Borde, in his 17^th year at Milton, likes some of the things he’s seen so far in his team, noting they’re very young (five freshmen and five sophomores) and a few players are out of the lineup right now.

He mentioned a few of his youngsters as players who played well, noting it bodes very well for the future. Cosetta, freshman Kendall Stanley, sophomore Caitlin O’Connell, sophomore Courtney Ware and freshman Sydney Turner were the players he mentioned specifically.