TMHS Girls Soccer Team Qualifies For The State Tournament

For the second consecutive year, will get to play at least one extra game in November.

The Redmen became the to earn a berth in the MIAA state tournament thanks to a 4-0 win over Methuen Thursday afternoon.

and assisted on another and sophomore Aly Spencer scored two goals and had an assist as Tewksbury raised its record to 9-4 and qualified for state tournament play with five games still left on the schedule.

Soccer teams must accumulate 18 points (two points for a win, one for a tie) to qualify, and the Redmen hit that magic number with their ninth win on Thursday.

Quigley got things started for Tewksbury just six minutes into the game when she raced up from her outside defender position to score her first goal of the season. Spencer had taken a shot that bounced hard off the Methuen goaltender, and the speedy Quigley collected the long rebound and slammed it home from 20 yards out.

Methuen fought hard for the rest of the first half and held an advantage in time of possession, but sophomore defender Olivia Gallella came up with the biggest defensive play of the game when she cleared an apparent Methuen goal off the goal line at the 37:00 minute mark, preserving a 1-0 halftime lead.

Spencer broke the Rangers' spirit less than two minutes into the second half when she executed a long run from midfield and scored her 13th goal of the season to make it 3-0.

at the 21 minute mark of the second half when she redirected a Quigley corner kick into the Methuen net. It was Gammon's sixth goal of the season.

Spencer capped the scoring with 10 minutes to play when she won a 50/50 ball at midfield and outraced two Methuen defenders to the penalty box, depositing the ball into the corner of the net for her Merrimack Valley Conference leading 14th goal of the season.

in the Tewksbury net, recording her sixth shut out of the season. Through 13 games, Davies has allowed just nine goals, for a 0.69 goals against average.

The players were upbeat after qualifying for their second straight MIAA tournament appearance, but coach Jeff Keefe was subdued.

"We'll deal with the post-season once we're done with the regular season," Keefe said. "We gotta continue to play inspired soccer. We know that any letdown at any time can end up with a bad result. We can't get into the habit of having off days because if we have an off day later in the season it could be the end of the season. So we have to keep playing good soccer day in and day out. That's really our only goal."

Tewksbury journeys to Newburyport on Saturday for a 6:00 p.m. rematch with the Clippers, who beat the Redmen 1-0 in an earlier match last month.