BEVERLY — A few days shy of her 18th birthday, Ava Gauvain was anxious throughout the day on Tuesday.
“The whole day at school I was thinking about this game. I was telling everyone how nervous I was … even if they didn’t care,” she said with a chuckle.
Gauvain needn’t have been so tense. She and her Masconomet field hockey teammates took care of business in a big early season road test in Beverly, knocking off the host Panthers, 4-1, at Frank Forti Field.
In the first meeting of the season between last year’s co-Northeastern Conference champions, Gauvain got the scoring started early in the second quarter, then watched as teammates Mia Marques (2) and Olivia Tsoukalas also connected for tallies while goaltender Sabrina Cafarelli finished with five saves.
“When I scored that goal, I felt all that pressure come off my back,” Gauvain, who will continue playing field hockey at Stonehill College starting next year, admitted. “After that, I could just play my game.
“I felt like we all really came together then and put out a message for who Masconomet field hockey is.”
Improving to 4-0, the Chieftains led by two at halftime. When Beverly senior Olivia Faletra — the insert on her team’s corners — scored off such a sequence after depositing an Ashley Wallace shot on net to slice their lead in half, the visitors didn’t bat an eye; they regained their two-goal advantage just two minutes later when Tsoukalas converted a pass from Marques.
“This game showed our team as a unit and how we work together, communicate and hold each other accountable while at the same time boosting each other up,” said the 18-year-old Tsoukalas, who like Gauvain hails from Boxford and scored her fourth goal of the young season.
Maddy Regan, another senior, assisted on two of the Chieftains’ tallies.
First-year Masconomet head coach Vanessa McGuire, a former assistant with the team, asked her players to “put the gas in the tank” before the game and come out full throttle.
“I wanted the girls to come out hungry for this one,” said McGuire, whose team forced Beverly goaltender Charlotte Stevens to make 11 saves.
“What she meant was go out hard and play Masconomet field hockey the way we know how,” added Marques, the 16-year-old from Middleton who has a team-leading six goals and nine points. She’s already drawing Division 1 college offers.
Beverly’s Danielle Hartford felt the team that scored first in this battle of NEC powers would have the upper hand, a theory that for her squad unfortunately proved correct.
“They were able to do it and ran with that momentum. I can’t blame them; we would’ve done the same thing,” said Hartford, whose Panthers (now 1-2) got strong outings from sophomores Gwen Jones and Wallace. “Then after we scored early in the third quarter then got one right back … that can hurt you as a team mentally.”
The Panthers had trouble setting up offensively thanks to a stout Masconomet defense in front of Cafarelli. With captain Savannah Stevens in the middle, junior Ella Massey on the right side, varsity newcomer Liv Palmer, another sophomore, on the left and senior Hannah Mitchell at sweeper, Tuesday’s goal scored by Beverly was the first allowed by the Chieftains in four games to date.
“That defense has looked so good … I’m really proud of that entire unit,” said McGuire.
Having faced two of the state’s power programs (including four-time Division 1 state champion Andover) in back-to-back games, Hartford is looking forward to addressing mistakes her club has made over the next few practices.
“We know we’ll be able to make the changes we need so those same mistakes aren’t made going forward,” she said.
Contact Phil Stacey
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