RallyNorth.net

Salem bests Pinkerton

Thursday, October, 25 By Chuck Frye
Staff writer

BEDFORD, N.H. | This time, there will be a winner.

After laying waste to their respective semifinal opponents in a doubleheader at Bedford High School, top seed Salem and No. 2 Timberlane will meet again Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in Bedford to finally determine the Granite State's top team. The squads battled to a 2-2 deadlock three weeks ago, the lone blemish on either team's record. And fittingly, the rematch will be for the Class L championship.

"I think this will be a great game that will compliment the sport and the kids who play it," Blue Devil head coach Carol Merchant said of the matchup after her squad fought through a stubborn Pinkerton defense to run away with a 4-0 victory. "These are two really skilled teams."

The two-time defending state champs rode a relentless, pressure-packed offense to victory over the fourth-seeded Astros, but not without a fight. Despite buzzing around Pinkerton junior netminder Julie Medeiros (18 saves) for much of the contest, the first half ended in a scoreless tie.

"I thought we played hard," Pinkerton head coach Denise Rioux said. "We had chances to score but we didn't finish a play. You're not going to win if you don't score. It doesn't matter if it's 1-0 or 6-0."

When senior Kyleigh Keating broke the scoring ice off of a beautiful feed from classmate Carolyn Malloy five minutes into the second half, the rout was on.

"Our motto is to do a two-minute drill," Keating explained. "Once we score once, we try to pound the net."

Keating rocketed a corner feed from Katie Bettencourt past Medeiros 7<1/2> minutes after her first score, followed just 40 seconds later by Malloy's goal off a rebound. A superb backhand goal from Michaela Galvin with 7:09 remaining wrapped up the scoring.

"We just had to fine-tune a couple of things in the second half," Merchant said. "Pinkerton plays great individual defense and great team defense, so we just needed to spread them wider and get a little space.

"We're very purposeful in what we do. We value possession of the ball a lot. Our midfielders are pushing forward into offensive space and we're creating off of that."