Worcester Girls Rally Past Dragons

BERLIN- Worcester Prep’s girls’ varsity soccer team got off to a sluggish start this week in a home game against rival Salisbury School before getting the offense cranked up and routing the Dragons, 5-1.

Salisbury School took a 1-0 lead about halfway through the first half on Tuesday on a soggy field at Worcester Prep and made the advantage hold up through halftime. The first half of the game was played largely in the middle of the field and in the Salisbury School offensive end as the Mallards didn’t mount much of a scoring threat against the Dragons.

Whatever adjustments Worcester Prep made at halftime were clearly the right ones as the Mallards applied constant pressure on the Salisbury School from practically the very first minute of the second half. Worcester applied more pressure on the Dragon goal in the first five minutes of the second half then it did for the entire first half.

With just over five minutes gone in the second half, Worcester got on the scoreboard with a goal by Molly Soule on an unsettled situation in front of the Salisbury School net to tie the game at 1-1. Worcester continued to apply offensive pressure and had numerous chances to take the lead including a shot that bounced off the crossbar and another near miss knocked away by the diving Dragons’ keeper, who made great save after great save during the sequence.

With just under 15 minutes left in the game, Worcester’s Lilly DiNardo got past the Salisbury School defense and got a one-on-one with the Dragons’ goalkeeper before firing a hard grounder into the corner for a 2-1 lead. A little over two minutes later, Worcester’s Frankie Willing launched a bomb from well outside the box that squeaked under the crossbar for a 3-1 Worcester lead.

At the 10:15 mark in the second half, Willing launched a high crossing pass in front of the Dragon goal and Julia D’Antonio knocked it in to stake the Mallards to a 4-1 lead. Worcester’s Alex Bruder scored the Mallards’ last goal of the game with just 1:09 remaining in the contest to finish out the scoring at 5-1.