Tewksbury Defense Shows Ferocity in Draw

On a windy, chilly, near-autumn day, defense was the name of the game.

Tewksbury and Wilmington varsity girls' soccer held each other scoreless for two halves on Friday afternoon at Livingston Street Field, finishing in a 0-0 draw.

In what ended up being a very physical game of two evenly matched teams, the Lady Redmen were unable to muster any offense against the rival powerhouse Wildcats. Luckily for Tewksbury, however, goalkeeper Rebecca Davies was manning the net and made some spectacular and well-timed saves, including a show-stopper midway through the first half on a free kick.

"Rebecca was so excellent. Our girls had losing seasons the past two years, but the ability they showed today was great," says Coach Kelly Barrio.

"I'm very proud of the girls. It's a new program for me, but they've been working hard and to compete that well against such a tough opponent is great. I'm just so proud."

The energy of this back and forth game was evident from the opening whistle and only intensified as play got chippier and tensions grew.

Tewksbury played a large portion of the first half on its own side of the field, which speaks volumes to how stingy the defense played in the shutout. There was one close call late in the first half, however, as a well-placed corner kick went just wide and the score remained 0-0.

Captain Liz Marchand made countless defensive stops throughout the course of the game, propelling the Lady Redmen.

There were several groans from both sets of spectators after some of the pushing and shoving, but the referees let the rivals play without much influence.

In the second half, a near goal by Heather Carroll had the Tewksbury crowd on their feet before the ball sailed just over the crossbar. Not long after, Kelly Quigley had a shot of her own clank off the left post, keeping the draw in place.

There were, of course, plenty of missed opportunities on both sides, such as a cross that landed perfectly in the middle of the box but the ensuing shot went wide left. And for Wilmington a very unlucky miss right in front of the goal as the teams remained in a back and forth tug of war match.

Tewksbury raised their level of play in the second half with the smell of victory in the air, but was unable to break through the scoring drought that both teams experienced. The Lady Redmen were pleased with their effort overall and look forward to meeting the Wildcats again.

The two teams play again very late in the season on Nov. 1 at Wilmington.