Medfield Blanks Dover-Sherborn to Begin Season 3-0

One goal separated the and Dover-Sherborn girls’ soccer teams Tuesday and fortunately for the Warriors, that tally came off the foot of sophomore forward Kristina Gustafson.

“She stepped up,” said Medfield head coach Michael La Francesca of Gustafson. “We got the ball to her and she has speed – I don’t think there’s anyone faster than her. We spoke to her and said if the goalie comes out, [Gustafson] just has to place the ball. Not kill it, not redirect it, just place the ball and that’s what she did.”

Gustafson broke ahead of the defense with a teammate following to create a two-on-one scoring chance. Dover-Sherborn’s goalkeeper, Julia Perlmutter, who had been lights out for nearly 31 minutes, aggressively came out of net to play the ball and Gustafson pushed a soft shot past her to net the eventual game-winner with 9:51 to play in the second half.

“Fortunately that was the goal that won us the game,” La Francesca said.

Medfield (3-0, 3-0) defeated the Raiders (1-1) 1-0 at the MHS turf behind Gustafson and strong defensive efforts in the backfield and in net.

“Mimi [Borkan] had some great saves [in net] in the first half that could have been goals with another keeper,” said La Francesca. “The defense played strong, they played well. They were covering their marks and the middies were coming back and both teams are equally matched.”

Both teams played a scoreless first half despite plenty of opportunities from each side in a back-and-forth, up-tempo style of play for 40 minutes.

“It’s a rival situation,” said Dover-Sherborn head coach David Wainwright. “We know right now that [Medfield is] the best in the state. It says so. They got a state championship trophy and we don’t. We were the runner-ups in our division. Regardless of division, they’re in our league and we want to come out and try to get on top.”

While both teams had opportunities to score and the game remained scoreless until late in the second half, Medfield was the team applying more pressure throughout.

“They really put a lot of hard pressure on us in terms of being physically fit,” Wainwright said. “They were athletic, everything they always are. They’re solid from top to bottom, they know how to play this game and they’re good at it.”

La Francesca said the Warriors 3-0 start “feels great” but there are still areas that he’d like his team to improve on.

“There’s a few things that I still want to work on,” said La Francesca. “I think we have to be quicker on the ball and need to make quicker runs. I think we need to keep our assignments a little bit better.”

Medfield will look to make it four straight when it hosts Medway Friday at 5 p.m. on the MHS turf.

Check Medfield Patch Wednesday morning for a photo gallery look at Medfield's 1-0 victory over Dover-Sherborn.