Big first half lifts Hollis Brookline girls soccer past Milford

MILFORD – The Hollis Brookline High School girls soccer team is starting to see the benefit of playing a lot of young players the last couple of years.

And it certainly helps to add a player like Sydney Brackett.

The Cavaliers core group of juniors and seniors are in their third year as starters, and the addition of Brackett, who has eight goals in the team’s first four games, has helped HB to fast start, including Tuesday’s 5-1 win over Milford.

That win improved the Cavs to 4-0 in Division II, and they’ve scored 17 goals in the first quarter of the season.

“We’ve been working on keeping our shape and moving the ball a lot more quickly this year, get it off our feet and open up some space,” HB coach Peter Clarke said. “I’m seeing that. We had some really creative runs upfront.

“When she needs to be Syd, she steps up and does that, but the rest of the time, what she’s doing is raising the level of play of all her teammates. The runs they’re able to make off her, the space that’s available off her, and then she feeds the ball back in and rewards the run. That gives everybody confidence and everybody is running and at all times, we have two or three options.”

Brackett had the Cavs’ first two goals of the game, the first one coming in the fourth minute, and also added two assists.

While Milford (1-3) held the senior off the scoreboard in the second half, the first goal might have gotten in the Spartans’ heads a bit.

“She’s a pretty skilled player,” Milford coach Russ Matthews said. “I’m sure it does because the girls knew about her coming in, and before I even say anything to them, she puts one in early and they think ‘wow, she really is that good.’ Geena (Ciardelli) did a great job on her in the second half.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes. I think that’s what beat us, mental mistakes. When I look at possession and passes and pass completions, we’re neck and neck with them. They had more shots than us, but the possession part was pretty even, we just beat ourselves.”

Erin Mcguire had the lone goal for Milford, scoring in the final two minutes of the first half, but by then, HB had already had a 4-1 lead.

Brackett made it 2-0 in the 17th minute when she blew down the left side of the field with the ball and beat Milford goalie Katie Lorden (12 saves) near side. In the 30th minute, Torrey Cook scored off a nice feed from Taylor Cook, and Rachel Flanagan scored off a corner kick by Brackett that made it 4-0 in the 36th minute.

“I’m lucky I’ve got a deep bench, and we’ve been working on playing fast and getting a lot of bodies on the field,” Clarke said. “It’s the players coming off the sideline that have developed more confidence, so we’re not losing anything.”

Ellie Caswell finished out the scoring with a goal in the 74th minute.

HB returns to action Friday at Goffstown, while Milford gets a week off before playing at Souhegan on Sept. 15.