LYNN — A show of force offensively, a you’re-not-scoring-on-us mentality defensively, and the Hamilton-Wenham girls soccer team finds itself back in the Division 4 state final for the second time in four years.
“I love being a General!” shouted senior goalkeeper Sasha Makogonov following her team’s 3-0 triumph over Cape Ann League rival Lynnfield in the state semifinals Monday night at Manning Field.
“We’ve had a great season so far and haven’t lost a game, so after every game I just get more and more excited,” added Makogonov, who bleached her hair and dyed it blue for her team’s playoff run. “I feel like after every win I go over to the team and say ‘I’m proud to be a General’ because I know that no other team in our division is experiencing this right now. So I’m really proud to be a part of this team.”
After taking a one-goal lead into halftime, Hamilton-Wenham (18-0-4) scored twice more over the final 40 minutes to punch their ticket to Saturday’s Division 4 state championship game. The second seeded Generals will meet the winner of Tuesday’s Sutton/Cohasset semifinal clash, with the title tilt being played at Curry College in Milton at 10 a.m.
“It’s really a full circle moment,” said senior captain Tessa Hunt, who scored her team’s second goal. “The four captains (including seniors Sadie Gamber, Annie Moynihan, and the injured Maddy Wood), we were all on the varsity team freshman year when we last won it. We’ve all been playing together since we were tiny; club soccer, so many different levels. It feels like we have such a strong connection — and we want to go out with a bang.”
The end result was also a measure of revenge for H-W, which lost to Lynnfield in last year’s Round of 8 by a 4-0 count. The two teams had tied this fall during their only regular season meeting.
On this night, Hamilton-Wenham came out loose and it showed in its play, taking control early and never relenting. They had two golden opportunities to get on the scoreboard within the first four minutes, first when scoring star Georgia Wilson was sprung on a breakaway but denied by Lynnfield goaltender Victoria Minor (5 saves), who came out of her cage to cut down the shot and corral it with her right arm. Moments later, Wilson cranked a shot off the Pioneer crossbar.
“Did I think it would haunt us? Most definitely,” admitted H-W head coach Nancy Waddell. “I thought we needed those, but they just kept working.”
The Gens finally broke through in the 26th minute. On a corner kick, Wilson blasted a shot towards the box that Kate Cassidy corralled and blasted on net. Her shot hit the top crossbar, but senior forward Maddie Ciaramitaro pounced on the rebound and knocked it home.
“Her goal was to have one goal this year. But she scored our second goal against Pentucket to give us some breathing room, and had another one in the (state) tournament,” said Waddell. “Madeline’s that little sparkplug with her speed and makes things happen in the box.”
Waddell changed her team’s defensive game plan “at 11 a.m. (Monday)” from man marking all over to the place (as they had done in their first meeting) to having her defenders stay home and try to pick up Lynnfield’s top scorers. It worked as Evie Bernard, Caroline Monahan, Emmy Pitkin and Sadie Gamber, along with Lilly Giovannucci subbing in, turned in an excellent effort in front of Makogonov (3 saves).
“I know those four girls in front of me, I’d trust them with my life,” said Makogonov. “I know they can go up against anybody. I’ll take them any time.”
Moynihan, the team’s center midfielder, kept shifting where the danger was and shut down the Pioneers’ dangerous Emma Rose and, at times, equally gifted Kaylee Barrett.
Lynnfield’s best bid over the first 40 minutes came when Ava Damiani got a clean look at the net, but her shot was deflected by Monahan before Makogonov grabbed it.
Hunt, who was denied by Minor on a diving stop 10 minutes into the second half, connected the next time she had a chance. At the 56-minute mark she gathered a cross from Wilson at the near post and ping-ponged it home for a 2-0 advantage.
“Georgia and I have been practicing that play,” said Hunt. “Every game we say, ‘We have to get one’, but went in today saying it might be hard because teams might now we’re going to do it. But we did it anyway.”
Wilson put the nail in the coffin after launching a high, arching shot on net off another corner kick that eluded the fingertips of a leaping Minor with seven minutes to play.
Now, this unbeaten squad paced by its 12 seniors is 80 minutes away from lifting the state championship hardware for the second time this decade.