SUTTON – With a mixture of speed and an aggressive pressing style, the Sutton High School varsity girls’ soccer team advanced past the CMADA Tournament Division 3 quarterfinal round with a 2-0 win over Leicester on Friday.

After starting 4-3 and despite dealing with numerous injuries throughout the season, the number four ranked Suzies have since won eight out of their last nine games, including a five-game win streak that featured four clean sheets (shutouts). They now travel to Littleton in the semifinals tonight at 7 p.m. against the number one seeded Tigers for Sutton’s toughest challenge of the season.

Against Leicester, Sutton played mostly in a 3-5-2 formation, which means they had three backs, five midfielders, and two forwards positioned on the field. The forwards stayed in the attacking half of the field, while three defenders played on their half of the field only allowing a total of eight relatively harmless shots directed at their standout goalkeeper, Katie Wright. Leicester’s best and only true scoring opportunity came toward the end of the first half when a shot hit the crossbar. However, Sutton’s defense kept the Wolverine’s offense in check and Wright was never really tested for her second straight postseason shutout.

“Over the past couple months, we’ve talked about the responsibilities of the midfielders against the wide players,” said Sutton head coach Jensen Shipp following the game Friday. “And how important they are when we do transition defense to preventing as many goal-scoring chances as possible. And I think we’ve done a much better job just over the past two weeks of preventing great chances. A 25-yard shot from distance with Katie Wright in goal is not a concern to us.”

If the playing style from their victory against the number five seed Wolverines is any indication of their approach to tonight’s semifinal game against Littleton, the Suzies may have a good chance knocking off the top-ranked Tigers, who are 14-1 in the Midland Wachusett Conference C. 

Two players set the tone for Sutton early against Leicester. First, junior Ruby Adamowicz established tough physical play against the Leicester defense early and

Sutton junior Ruby Adamowicz pressed the ball against Leicester Friday. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

often. She fought for every 50-50 ball as the Leicester defenders seemed to bounce off her hips and had little answer for her aggressive playing style.

“We call her the one-player-press,” Shipp said. “We do talk about pressing. We want to be a team that plays in the other team’s half and the other team’s attacking third. Part of that is possessing the ball, moving the ball higher up the field, and then when we lose it, pressing immediately and she does set that tone. There is a trigger. If she goes everyone is supposed to go. She sets the tone.”

Shipp, who is in his second season as Sutton’s head coach, said Adamowicz has always had that aggressive, physical mindset on the pitch. “She’s always had that in her,” he said. “We can always count on her … If that ball is played too far or it’s going to the defender first, she always has that little bounce and then she’s just gonna press. She’s always had that since I’ve known her.”

Shipp said he expects the pressing style and physicality to continue throughout the tournament. “It’s one thing that we talked about all the time,” he said. “Like I said, it’s pressing and it’s our physicality. And sometimes if the whole team is not doing it, one player doing it can lift the spirit, lift the energy of the rest of the players around them.”

The physicality of Adamowicz helped open space for the speedy eighth-grader, Ava Magnuson. In turn, Sutton’s fast forward caused Leicester’s defense to play back on their heels for much of the game. At about the ten-minute mark of the first half, the press caused the Wolverines to cough up the ball deep in their end of the field. Magnuson was able to quickly pounce on the ball and pass it into the box to wide-open freshman Addison Jerome, who buried the scoring opportunity in the back of the net. 

“We’ve talked about just being compact, higher up the field,” Shipps said about the first goal. “Oh, that’s our chance to win it back and then Addie put herself in a great spot. Ava picked her head up and found our forward in a great spot in front of the goal.”

About five minutes later, Magnuson, the smallest player on the field, buried a shot of her own to put the Suzies up by two goals.

Shipp said Magnuson was cleared to play for the team after Sutton was hit with the injury bug this season. “She’s a good player,” he said, “She dedicates a ton of her time to be the best player she can. And you can tell over the years she’s put in a lot of time into it. So, it’s not just natural, it’s hard work for her and it really shows. She’s a great player on the ball and off the ball.” 

Shipp also credits junior Natalie Smith, who recently came back from an injury, as another impactful player on defense. “She’s become a center back playing every minute. Since she stepped into the position, it’s a bit louder a voice in the back and I think you see the difference she makes in terms of just keeping the players around her organized and limiting the amount of chances that we were giving up in front of goal.”

Shipp said the versatility of senior Lindsay Kassatly has provided the Suzies with stability all season long. “She’s been healthy all year and she’s been a player that’s played a variety of roles,” he said. “She played as a center back today. She played a little bit as an outside back. She’s been a center defensive midfielder. She has man-marked players for us. She’s one of those invaluable pieces that might fly under the radar. She might not have the stats to back it up, but she does everything for us. Every role that we asked her to do, she embraces it and she does it well.”

After Sutton struggled to gain their footing after losing several key players to injuries early on in the season, Shipp said their 3-2 victory over Millbury (10-4-2) on Sept. 25 sparked the team’s success.

“Millbury was the turning point,” he said. “Millbury was the confidence booster they needed to really believe in themselves. I think they were a little down on themselves early on but Millbury sparked their self-confidence. It sparked their belief in themselves.”

Heading into Littleton, Shipp said as long as they keep talking on the field and maintain their aggressive play, they will have a chance to advance further in the postseason. 

“It’s less about the tactical stuff and the technical stuff with this group,” he said. “We talked about it before every game: communication and energy. If they bring those two things, they are one of the best teams in the state. They can play with anyone.”