The Marblehead High girls soccer team (13-1-5, 10th seed) needed two overtimes to dispatch Walpole (5-9-6, 23rd seed) in the Division 2 Round of 32 state tournament game at Piper Field on Wednesday night, Nov. 5, 3-2. The Timberwolves first had to play Putnam Vocational Tech (7-7, 42nd seed), in a preliminary round game on Nov. 3, and they handled Putnam rather easily to the tune of 14-0.
After the overtime thriller, the Magicians have advanced to the second round of the state tournament for the first time since 2016, and as a result are heading south to play Oliver Ames (10-5-2, seventh seed) in the Sweet 16 game on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 4 p.m.
The Tigers defeated Nashoba Regional (6-11-3, 26th seed) in their Round of 32 game, also on Wednesday, 5-0, after the Wolves escaped past Bristol-Plymouth Regional (14-4-1, 39th seed), 1-0 in the preliminary round game on Nov. 3.
“This one was not for the faint of heart,” said coach Lisa Wales right after the Walpole game.
The Magicians took a 1-0 lead just before halftime on a header by Callie Gilmore, with an assist going to Ashley Mortensen.
In the second half, Walpole came back with two unanswered tallies to go ahead by one with less than five minutes left in regulation, but then Wales moved Northeastern Conference MVP Sydney Ball to midfield, where she eventually found the back of the net with less than two minutes to go on a solo effort goal to send the game to sudden death overtime.
But then, there were a lot more nervous minutes — 18 to be exact — for the home fans, before the Magicians scored the game-winning goal. With two minutes left in the second 10-minute overtime period, Lucy McDonald took a pass from Callie Gilmore to finally drill the winning shot home from 30 yards out.
“The bigger the game, the better Lucy plays,” said Wales on Lucy’s clutch score afterwards. “We were without striker Liv Carlson and Sadie Halpern, and so once again we asked everybody else to step up, and they did. We bent, but did not break. We did, however, have a little bit of luck on our side, as well. But we still prepared for these moments, and were able to capitalize when the (opportunity arose).”
In the postseason, a team needs a reliable goalie to keep games close, and Hailey Gilmore did just that, coming up with eight pivotal saves against the Timberwolves.
Wales knew that Walpole was going to be a formidable team, because they play in the very challenging Bay State Conference. It still doesn’t get any easier for Marblehead, when it has to face Oliver Ames out of the competitive Hockomock League on Sunday, again in the Sweet 16 game at 4 p.m.
