Hopkinton girls soccer holds off second-half rally by Stevens

HOPKINTON – Whenever someone on the Hopkinton High School girls soccer team scores, forward Lillias Whitehead said it pumps up the whole team. The Hawks needed the energy their fourth goal generated Wednesday to close out a 4-3 home victory over Stevens.

Grace Clark’s goal from inside the 18-yard box in the 52nd minute put Hopkinton ahead 4-2 and proved to be the game-winner.

Hopkinton led, 2-0, at halftime before Jazmyn Griffin scored all three Cardinals goals in the second half, cutting Hopkinton’s lead to one goal on two occasions.

“I think we came out flat in the first half, and obviously that hurt us,” Stevens coach Tom Belaire said. “I thought everybody, in the second half, stepped up.”

Stevens (1-2) and the Hawks combined for three goals over the first five minutes of the second half.

Griffin put the Cardinals on the board in the 43rd minute when she brought the ball up from midfield and scored on a shot from the right side that found the lower left corner of the Hopkinton net. Her first tally made it 2-1 Hawks.

Hopkinton (2-1) answered right back when Taylor Signor put one past Stevens goalie Amber Duford (six saves) one minute later but that did not discourage the Cardinals.

Griffin scored again from the right on a shot into the lower left corner in the 45th minute to cut Hopkinton’s lead to 3-2. The Cardinals forward completed her hat trick in the 62nd minute when she scored on a chip shot over the head of Hopkinton goalie Amelia Bassett (four saves) following a Stevens corner kick.

“Stevens has always been a tough team to keep down … they just don’t quit,” Hopkinton coach Lauri Izzi said.

The Hawks contained Griffin and her Stevens teammates over the final 18 minutes by winning the possession battle and making head’s-up defensive plays.

“I think we needed to settle the ball more, get some passing along the sidelines and get some ball movement and get some movement off the ball,” Izzi said. “That’s really what we were trying to get across from the sidelines in: to have us keep our possession.”

All three of Stevens’ corner kicks and five of its seven shots on goal came in the second half. Hopkinton recorded 10 shots on goal and eight corners.

Hopkinton midfielder Caitlin Bell’s rebound goal through traffic from inside the box in the 17th minute opened the game’s scoring. Brianna Curley doubled the Hawks’ advantage in the 38th minute when she scored from the left side of the box on a low shot into the right corner.

“It is good our offense was scoring a lot and we scored in both halves,” Whitehead said. “That’s really good so we like how our offense played today.”

While Belaire would have liked to see his players show the tenacity they did in second half during the opening half, he was far from discouraged following the loss.

“I think we’re going to take away a lot more positives from this game than negatives,” he said.