Pilgrim rebounds after rough stretch

Posted 9/25/14

With high expectations and a hot start to match, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team was flying high a week into the season. Two weeks later, the Patriots are flying again but they’ve also been on the …

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Pilgrim rebounds after rough stretch

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With high expectations and a hot start to match, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team was flying high a week into the season. Two weeks later, the Patriots are flying again but they’ve also been on the ground more than they expected.

After opening the season with two lopsided wins, Pilgrim went three games without a victory, playing to a draw with Coventry and losing one-goal games to Moses Brown and Burrillville.

Since then, the Pats have swung back up, with a 4-0 win over Ponaganset on Friday and a 5-1 victory over North Smithfield on Monday.

They’re moving forward, with a little more awareness about how they need to do it.

“I’m hoping they’re back and where they need to be,” head coach Tom Flanders said after Monday’s win. “We had a tough week last week, two one-goal losses. A couple of bounces here or there. We didn’t play that well and other teams are giving us their ‘A’ game. We have to be ready for that because teams are coming at us. If we don’t have our ‘A’ game, we’re in trouble. We just have to make sure we tighten things up and keep playing like we did tonight.”

The Pats improved to 4-2-1 with Monday’s victory, putting them into a tie with Toll Gate atop Division II-South. Pilgrim was set to get another stiff test Wednesday against unbeaten Scituate, with results unavailable at press time.

Thanks to the resurgence, the Pats head into the Scituate game feeling like they’re back on track.

“We talked about not getting down on each other, staying positive and getting through it,” Flanders said. “It’s a long season. You’re going to have some hiccups. Hopefully, our hiccups happened in one week and now we’re moving on and progressing as a team. I think they responded well.”

In the bounce back against Ponaganset, Katelyn Vieira had two goals while Molly Lynch and Emma Manosh tallied one each as the Pats won 4-0. Vieira, Lynch, Kendra Tantimonico and Emma Reilly had assists.

On Monday, the Pats rolled again and Vieira carried the load. The senior standout scored all five goals, including four in the first half. She scored two minutes in with an assist from Lynch and hit paydirt again a minute later, with Manosh assisting. Haley Buco assisted on the third goal, 11 minutes in and Tantimonico set her up for the fourth tally in the 22nd minute.

Vieira added a penalty kick goal in the second half.

“We came out firing, delivering, hitting targets,” Flanders said. “It happened quick. The girls were on tonight. They did very, very well. We moved the ball, we found our target people and we did what we needed to do.”

Hannah Page made five saves for the Pats. Pilgrim gave up a late own goal to the Lady Northmen but otherwise remained in control. It was an impressive performance, considering the fact that North Smithfield came in with a 4-1-1 record, better than Pilgrim’s mark.

“We really played well,” Flanders said.

The Pats are hoping to keep the good times rolling. After the Scituate game, they’ll visit Mount St. Charles on Friday at 3:30 p.m. A match-up with rival Toll Gate looms next Thursday.

“I’m optimistic,” Flanders said. “We’ve got a three-game week again. We started a little stronger than last week. We play a very strong Scituate team on Wednesday so we’ll see what we can do.”

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