Campbell girls soccer scores early, shuts out Derryfield

LITCHFIELD – Gary Karibian had simple instructions for the Campbell High School girls soccer team at the start of this season.

The Cougars needed to start games with more energy.

Campbell seemed to have taken that message to heart on Monday, scoring the only goal they’d need less than five minutes into the game on the way to a 2-0 win over Derryfield in Division III action.

Erin Douglas had a goal and an assist and Sara Keane also had a goal as the Cougars (2-0) scored both goals in the first 25 minutes of the game and then played stellar defense against Gabi Brummett and Derryfield (1-1). Autumn Thompson shadowed Brummett throughout the game and the rest of the Campbell defense chipped in whenever possible against the three-time defending Gatorade Player of the Year.

“She’s a great player, and I don’t want to take anything away from her, but the biggest thing I wanted to talk about to my team is that we’re all human beings,” Karibian said. “We’re all going to work hard and fight hard. We had Autumn Thompson marking her one-on-one. We had people in the normal positions.”

Also chipping defensively against Brummett were Jill Kohm, Emma Rousseau, Jamie Jutras and Caitlyn Rossi while center midfielders Jess Manning, Maddi Caron and Keane took turns dropping back. Freshman goalie Mackenzie Wagner made 11 saves for Campbell, including a one-on-one stop of Brummett late in the second half.

“They were a very good, physical team, which is what you’re going to get when you move up a level,” Derryfield coach Peter Miller said, citing the Cougars’ move up from Division IV this year. “We’re up to the challenge, it’s can we stop playing one-dimensional. Can we play more possession, can we utilize everybody on the pitch.

“Moving up is going to be a challenge. Years past, I think they’ve always played in to Gabi, let’s find Gabi. We’re still in that mode right now and we’re trying to get out of it because she’s triple marked almost every game.”

Early on, it didn’t matter how many defenders Campbell put on Brummett, as it was able to control possession to start the game.

Douglas got her first chance of the game on a breakaway in the fourth minute, but Derryfield keeper Julia Sheppard (five saves) came up with a stop. But Campbell was able to keep possession alive, and Douglas brought the ball back in down the sideline, finding Keane with a crossing pass in front of the goal.

Campbell put a few more shots on Sheppard over the next 20 minutes, but it wasn’t until Douglas took a pass from Manning, broke in behind the Cougars’ defense and beat the goalie low to the far side for a 2-0 lead.

“We went up fairly early and it changes the whole complexity of the game,” Karibian said. “It changes how they play, how we play, and gives us confidence and momentum.

“I always say you can forgive the ones you don’t get if you can score. If you take a hundred breakaways, that’s not good. If you take a hundred and score two, that’s OK. You can forgive the other ones. We took our chances, we missed some, but we scored some.”

Derryfield was able to create more opportunities in the second half, as Miller moved Brummett back to try to give the Cougars more room to get the offense started.

“There are times that she can take over the game if she wants to,” he said. “I tucked her in a level behind (in the second half) because they were triple marking here. We slid some speed up top to try to suck them in and it worked a couple of times. She had more room to advance and go wide.”

Brummett’s best chance came with about 26 minutes left, as she ended up going in alone on Wagner, but the freshman cut down the angle and forced a shot right at her. The rebound bounced away, but by then, the Campbell defense had regrouped to help out the keeper.

“She made that save when she needed to,” Karibian said. “That could have been crippling. They come back and score a goal, they’ve got nothing to lose. They’re just going to push forward and try to score another one. That save was crucial.”

Campbell goes on the road for the first time this season on Friday, as it heads to Somersworth, while Derryfield is off until Sept. 6, when it heads to Hillsboro-Deering.