Lady Spartans Lose to Newburyport in North Sectional Final

The girls’ soccer team's dream season ended on Saturday afternoon at Manning Field in Lynn, as Newburyport defeated the lady Spartans in penalty kicks 6-5.

At the end of regulation and two overtimes, the score remained tied at 0-0 and after five consecutive made penalty kicks from each team, Newburyport capitalized on the Spartans' miss to advance on to the Eastern Massachusetts finals.

Stoneham (15-2-5) captain Betsy Albiani talked about the game plan heading into the clash with Newburyport (17-2-3) for the North Sectional championship.

“Going into this game we knew we had to play hard for the whole game and try and win every 50-50 ball,” Albiani said. “They were taller than us so we just needed to play quickly and do lots of give-and-gos. They had two very good forwards so we had to be careful and had to mark them closely.”

During the game, the Spartans had many opportunities to score, but they could not find the back of the net. Newburyport also had a few good chances that were turned away from the Spartan keeper Jessica Anthony.

Albiani reflected on the Spartans' loss to Newburyport and their season as a whole.

“It was hard to lose in the North finals, but we are all proud of how this season went,” Albiani said. “It was the first time in history that we’ve been in the finals and unfortunately we didn’t want it to end like that, but we all have a lot to be happy about this year.

“There weren’t too many times during the season that we were down a goal, but when we were we still stayed positive as a team,” Albiani said. “We try and encourage each other and work together. There are many other teams that will just start to yell at each other, but we never did that.”