KP Warriors Girls Soccer Team Loses a Tough One

It all came down to execution and unfortunately, for King Philip it was visiting Hopedale that executed their plays to the fullest.

Hopedale walked off the field with a hard fought 2-1 victory over the home team. With the loss, the King Philip girls soccer team fell to 0-2-2 on the young season.

“I thought that we played really hard and aggressive, but we had too many miscues and the lack of execution hurt us,” KP Coach Greg Massotti said. “Our inability to clear the ball in the first half allowed them to score the game’s first goal.”

After Malorie Norton was denied an early scoring opportunity, Hopedale pushed the ball into the Warriors' end of the field. When the home team could not get the ball out, the visitors capitalized. The Hillers' Jessica Messier collected a loose ball and hit Anna Siefring with a crossing pass, which she deposited behind KP keeper Emily Hehn.

With just under seven minutes remaining in the first half, the Warriors knotted the score at one to go into the break even. Junior midfielder Jane Bingel lofted a shot high in the air from the right side of the field that sailed over the outstretched hands of Jenna Marcello into the upper left hand corner of the net.

King Philip, playing on back-to-back days (they tied Mansfield on Tuesday) seemed to be a little fatigued in the second half with the game still there for the taking. Hopedale, on the other hand, was getting their second wind and came out blazing, keeping the ball in the Warriors' end of the field for a good chunk of the half.

“I don’t know if we were tired or just not concentrating, but we were making a mistake here and a mistake there, and it eventually caught up with us,” the coach said. “Hopedale was handing it to us and we could not execute. We had dodged a few bullets early, but couldn’t hold them off long enough.”

When the Warriors were able to get the ball close enough for a decent shot, Marcello was there to thwart the pressure until her offense got going.

“We played much better in the second half. Our game is play ball control as we don’t have those big feet,” Hopedale Coach Patty Armour said. “Once we were able to get our passes moving, we were able to adjust and attack. At that point Jenna [the team’s only senior] turned her game up, coming out to take away anything that came near her.”

Hopedale was able to add their second goal of the game early in the second half. Once again, Messier was involved in the Hillers scoring. After Hehn made the save off Messier, Kara Bresciani was there to collect the rebound and quickly kick it into the empty net to give Hopedale the eventual game winner.

King Philip will have the day off before getting back on the field for yet another quality opponent when they travel to North Attleboro on Friday afternoon. Hopedale will go into Nipmuc with a 2-0 record on the same afternoon.