Nashua South's Shelby Descoteaux battles for the ball with a Manchester Memorial player during Tuesday's game.
NASHUA – The Nashua High School South girls soccer team has been working on getting better every practice and every game.
Head coach Manfred Beyer wanted to see them improve from half to half against Manchester Memorial Tuesday night. He got what he wanted.
The Panthers scored twice in the second half and kept the Crusaders on their own end of the field for most of a 3-0 win at Stellos Stadium. The victory moved South to 3-0 in Division I, and was the second shutout of the season for goalie Bruna dePaula and the Panthers’ defense.
“I thought we played with intensity, I thought we played committed, I thought we played together,” Beyer said. “Every time we take the pitch, we think we’re going to win. Whether we do or not, we play to.”
South got goals from Hannah Cunningham, Michaela Nault and Kristin Dechene while Shelby Descoteaux, Abby Cote and Katie Conmy also played well.
“For the most part, the consistency of our intensity and commitment was there,” Beyer said. “There aren’t too many ebbs and flows. We’ve been consistent keeping our level of play as high as we can get and we’re looking to improve it even more.”
One thing the Panthers did have to adjust to was the speed of the field, as Tuesday night was the first time this season that they hadn’t played on natural grass. After a while, South was able to control the tempo of play and force Memorial repeatedly into its own end. Cunningham’s goal gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead at halftime, which Beyer knew wasn’t going to be enough for his team to feel comfortable.
“We talked about not being content,” he said. “We had a 1-0 lead and 1-0 lead is nothing. We wanted to play better in the second half than we did in the first half. I think we played better in the second half. We controlled the ball even better in the second half, and we got used to the pitch a little bit more.”
Nashua South's Megan Cunningham heads a ball during Tuesday's game.
Nault scored the first varsity goal of her career 12 minutes into the half, collecting a loose ball near the top of the box and getting past Memorial goalie Ashley Gendron to make it 2-0.
While South only had a few offensive opportunities after that, the Panthers were holding Memorial without any chances of its own.
“We controlled it territorially and we controlled it in time of possession,” Beyer said. “When that happens, a counterattack can catch you napping. I was very proud of our defense, because when they did get it down to our end, we stifled them. It’s hard sometimes to keep focus in the match, especially when you consistently have the ball in your offensive third. Our defense kept their heads in the game and stayed totally committed.”
Dechene made it 3-0 with 20 minutes left in the game, converting a left-to-right crossing pass from Conmy that Gendron didn’t have time to get to.
South returns to action on Friday when it heads to Rochester to face Spaulding.