Cumberland grinds out victory over Barrington
Free’s free kick sends Clippers into semifinals
CUMBERLAND — Even though No. 7 Barrington controlled long stretches of the second half of Saturday night’s Division I girls soccer quarterfinal, No. 2 Cumberland didn’t panic – they’d been here before.
“I knew this game was going to be 1-nothing either way, it’s who we are,” Cumberland coach John Hoxsie said. “It can be nerve-wracking, but it’s good to know we can play good defense in tight games, that’s good. We don’t freak out, we’re comfortable. At halftime, I said ‘Hey girls, it’s 0- 0, we’re comfortable here.’ They were like, ‘Yup, we are.’”
After soaking up plenty of pressure throughout most of the second half, the Clippers earned a scoring opportunity and they didn’t waste it. Barrington was called for a hand ball seven yards outside of goalie Alaina Wood’s penalty box and Cumberland’s most indispensable player, senior all-division central midfielder Abby Free, stepped up to take the kick.
Free curled the ball into the bottom corner of Gagliano’s net and then the Clippers held on. Junior goalie Juliette Vemmer recorded her fourth straight shutout with eight saves, as the Clippers advanced to the Division I semifinals with a 1- 0 victory at Tucker Field.
“This is probably the way we’re going to play through the playoffs because that’s just the nature of the team,” Free said. “This style is a really good thing to have because we play the same way every game no matter who we play. Somehow, it always works against every team.”
Cumberland is back in the state semifinals for the first time since Free was a freshman in 2016. That year, the Clippers were a high-scoring side led by current Northeastern standout Julianne Ross and UMass-Lowell defender Abby Drezek. Free was a freshman starter on that team, so she’s excited to bookend her career with a shot at Cumberland’s first state title.
“This feels so good, it’s actually so crazy that it’s been that long for us,” Free said. “It feels kind of like yesterday.”
Hoxsie, who was Anthony Silva’s assistant when the Clippers went to the state final in 2015 and again when they lost to state champion Portsmouth in the semifinals in 2016, is excited to be the architect of a team that is still alive for the title.
“This feels very good,” Hoxsie said. “These girls deserve to be here because they’ve worked hard every year. We talked at the end of last season [after a playoff loss to Barrington] about finishing in the top six. When we started winning all the games we did early in the season, I told the girls that top six is no longer good enough. We wanted to be a top-four side and we are because we’re in the semifinals. Now, we have to change the goal because we’re not happy just being a top-four team.”
Cumberland (13-2-1 Division I) will head to East Greenwich Thursday night at 7:30 to play either No. 3 North Kingstown or No. 6 Mt. Hope for a spot in the title game.
The Clippers defeated the Skippers 1-0 during the regular season, while the Huskies were the only team to score twice against Cumberland, as the teams played to a 2-2 tie last month at Tucker Field.
Barrington controlled territory in the opening 15 minutes, but Cumberland had the better scoring chances in the first half. Gianna Sarmento hit a free kick that went off of Wood’s hands and then the crossbar before the goalie recovered the loose ball. In the 22nd minute, midfielder Marina Zuhr headed a superb cross over the net from just outside the sixyard box.
Sophia Richardson and the Barrington midfield were quicker to the ball than Cumberland’s midfield for the first 25 minutes of the second half, but Vemmer was up to the task each time she was pressed into action.
“We don’t score many goals, but we don’t give up many,” Hoxsie said. “That was a good game because Barrington played very, very well. In the second half we were getting outplayed and that’s something we’re going to have to work on. We need to control the midfield to facilitate the ball to our strikers.”
Cumberland caught a break in the 75th minute when the Eagles were called for a hand ball just outside of their box. Unlike her free-kick goal against Burrillville earlier in the season, Free opted for precision over power and it led to the game-winning goal.
“We actually practiced that the other day – curling the ball,” Free said. “I haven’t always learned to do it that way. I got up there and Marina said ‘I think you got this.’ I just told her, ‘I got this.’ On the shot, I feel like it was easier to place the ball there because it is behind the goalie and tougher for her to get to it.”