FREEPORT — Cat Gould registered three goals, including a pair in the second half, as Freeport pulled away for a 5-2 victory over Gray-New Gloucester in Western Maine Conference girls’ soccer action Thursday.
The game was the first-regular season soccer game on the new Joan Benoit Samuelson Track and Field at Freeport High School.
“There was a lot of excitement tonight, it was great to be out here,” Freeport coach Dave Intraversato said.
It took only six minutes for Freeport to put a tally on the scoreboard. Gould received a pass from Hannah Spaulding to the right side of the net and Gould blasted it past Patriots goalie Chelsea Davis for the game’s first score.
The Patriots (0-1) did not unleash their first shot, which went wide, until 10 minutes into the first half. Following a goalie kick to the other end of the field, GNG intercepted the ball and moved it back the other way. Minutes later, Patriots senior Alexa Thayer beat Intraversato to even the score.
“Alexa is one of those special, dynamic players, when she has the opportunity to go at a player, she has the ability to do just that,” GNG coach Kiaran McCormack said. “She can create something out of nothing, she’s incredible to work with, she’s always willing to work.”
With 18 minutes left in the half, Spaulding drove the net, only to get crossed up and taken down. After a penalty was called, Gould drilled the ball to the back of the net on the penalty kick to break the tie.
“We play a lot faster,” Gould said of playing on the turf. “We’ve worked a lot on fitness lately, so we’ve managed to play all throughout the field with a good pace.”
The score remained 2-1 into the break. Freeport held the slight edge in shots, 5-4.
Gray-New Gloucester wasted no time putting pressure on the Falcons to begin the second half, getting a shot towards the net just 30 seconds into the frame, but it went wide.
Gould threatened to score again eight minutes in, but her shot was stopped by a diving Davis to preserve the one-goal deficit.
The Patriots again made another threat when Laurel Thomas stole a Freeport pass and carried the ball down field for a shot on goal. Carly Intraversato came up with the save.
“The defense played amazing,” Gould said. “We played out of the back very well and we tried switching the field when we could.”
About halfway through the half, Spaulding tallied a score, taking a well-placed ball from Gould in the middle and pushing it across for the score.
“They have a couple of dangerous players we didn’t deal with,” McCormack said.
Gould pushed across her third goal of the contest with less than 15 minutes remaining in the game for a 4-1 lead, taking the air out of the visitors.
“There was a lot of excitement coming out here at the beautiful facility,” McCormack said. “There’s been a lot of back and forth between us so we’ve sort of built a rivalry, there was a lot of emotion in this game, and at times that got bigger than the quality of soccer.”
Kyleigh Alt scored for the Patriots to cut the deficit to 4-2 with less than nine minutes remaining in the game, but the legs of the Patriots were slowing down.
The depth of the Falcons was showing its benefits.
“We have that depth that anyone can step up at any time and fill that role,” Intraversato said. “Unfortunately, in the first half we lost one of our players and it kind of took the wind out of our sails. But we had other girls step up. We have a lot of girls on the team, a deep bench.”
Senior Tara Migliaccio put the final exclamation point on the contest with a blast off the far left post for the final goal of the evening.
Carly Intraversato ended with seven saves, while her counterpart, Davis, turned away five in the loss.
Freeport will take the momentum of the 5-2 victory to face Greely.
“There are still some kinks we’ve got to work out, we have Greely on Tuesday so we’ll work on some things,” he said.
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