Amesbury shuts out Innovation Academy 6-0 in tourney first round

Plenty of pressure in the Innovation end throughout the game

Mollie Lynch gets a point-blank shot off on Hawks goalie Melissa Fonseca

(Amesbury MA) Amesbury pressured visiting Innovation Academy from start to finish and won their Division 4 First Round game, 6-0, on Friday night at Landry Stadium.

The #6 seed Indians (10-4-5) will play #3 seed Matignon next on Monday.

Amesbury racked up three goals in the first half and substitute Schuyler Snay had assists in two of them. In both cases, Schuyler sped along the right sideline before finding teammates Chelsea Lynch and Maia Etsy in the middle.

After two point-blank shots by the Lynch cousins (Mollie and Chelsea) it was Mollie who converted a rebound to open the Amesbury scoring at 19:58.

Michaela Halloran had a goal disallowed for colliding with Innovation goalie Melissa Fonseca late in the first half. My photos would suggest otherwise.

Emily Reed (3) and Ashley Pettet (8)

Less than two minutes into the second half sophomore Ashley Pettet tallied a low bullet from the left. Ashley was the best player on the field from where I was watching. She constantly created space for herself and found teammates with excellent passes.

Emma Richardson finished off a Mikayla Porcaro throw-in to collect the 5^th Indians goal.

Two plus minutes later freshman Sophia Carter used a strong left foot the garner the home team’s final goal.

The Hawks of Tyngsboro (8-6-5) had plenty of speed but couldn’t get any sort of passing attack in motion. Good Amesbury defense led by Emma DiPietro, Hannaih Burdick, and Mikayla Porcaro spelled the difference.

Emma Richardson (25) scores on a throw-in

No question that Mikayla Porcaro’s long throw-ins created problem in front of the Innovation goal.

Ashley Pettet had some very dangerous corner kicks for the Indians.

Plenty of students on hand supporting the AHS girls soccer team.

I knew that identifying Innovation players would be an adventure when the game program had their names without numbers. I also discovered that the MIAA roster for the team was inaccurate.

Surprised that there were no announcements about the specifics of each goal.

(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge significantly if you click on them.)