Medfield Girls' Soccer Closes Out September with 4-0 Victory Over Ashland

The girls’ soccer team scored three goals in the second half Friday to beat Ashland, 4-0 and improve to 7-0-1 this season.

“I feel we controlled the ball for most of the game and we had many opportunities,” said Medfield head coach Michael La Francesca. “I take my hat off to [Ashland’s] goalie, who made some great saves. Their defense played well. We kept shooting from the outside and not the inside, which alleviated some of that stress for them so they did a great job. … I thought we played well. We were the stronger team out there.”

Kristina Gustafson scored the only goal of the first half, converting on her own rebound at the 19:42 mark to give Medfield a 1-0 lead.

The Warriors’ defense controlled possession throughout the game, limiting Ashland’s opportunities while playing the majority of the 80 minutes at the Clockers’ end of he field.

“We start from the back, Mimi [Borkan], our goalie, has done a tremendous job and ha has made some great saves,” La Francesca said. “Our defense, all of them back have been really solid and we’ve made some changes about three or four games ago and it has worked out well.”

Katelyn Murray started Medfield’s 3-goal outburst in the second half with a tally at the 12:45 mark. Cami McCourdy (9:05) and Ellie Siino (stoppage time) added to Medfield’s lead as the Warriors blanked Ashland.

Medfield is unbeaten after the first month of the season and while La Francesca says he is never “happy” or satisfied with the state of his team, he feels the girls are where they should be at this point of the year.

“I think we can always do better and we can improve,” La Francesca said. “But overall, they’re just amazing. We work hard at practices, we set small goals and achieve those goals and then we continue on. This is a great group and I can see them succeeding this year.”

La Francesca said the efforts and leadership from several of his players has contributed to the team’s success through the first eight games of the season.

“Coming down the middle, Jen Narlee, is just tremendous in the middle. She wins every single ball in the air. The support of Sara [Isaacson] and [Nicole] Busa on the outside. Our forwards are finishing the ball. We scored about 13 goals in the last three games so it says a lot about them.

“Jen Narlee, is just tremendous in the middle,” La Francesca said. “She wins every single ball in the air. The support of Sara [Isaacson] and [Nicole] Busa on the outside. Our forwards are finishing the ball. We scored about 12 goals in the last three games so it says a lot about them.”

Even after a 4-0 victory and a 7-0-1 start to the season, La Francesca referenced the team’s lack of focus in the first 10 minutes of Friday’s game as a starting point for what his players can still work on.

“I thought we started out slow,” La Francesca said. “I thought we were flat. I thought we weren’t communicating that well … so those are some things I want to work on because we need to play 80 minutes of soccer. Every team we play is going to be solid this year and we need to play 80 minutes of soccer.”

Medfield’s next game is on the road against Millis at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 3.

Log on to Medfield Patch Saturday for a photo gallery and video highlights from this game.