Peabody 10-11

OCTOBER 11, 2018
WEEKLYNEWS.NET - 978-532-5880 11
Peabody boys reel in Gloucester
By Mike Alongi
PEABODY — After getting off
to a slow start, the Peabody boys
soccer team got its act together
and battled to a 6-2 win over
Gloucester at Coley Lee Field
Monday evening. The Tanners
had six different goal scorers,
something coach Stan McKeen
was very pleased with.
“We had six different guys
score today and that’s really what
we’ve been looking for this year,”
said McKeen. “Everyone contributed
today, and it was a great team
effort all the way around after a
poor start.”
Johnny Alves scored one
goal and dished one assist to
lead the way, while Ramon
Falcao, Michael Tansey, Tulio
Nascimento, Noah Surman and
Josh Atemkeng each scored once.
For Gloucester, Andrea Napoli
and Andrew Coelho each scored
one goal, while Elijah Elliot tallied
two assists.
The Fishermen appeared to be
the fresher team for the first 15
minutes, moving the ball all over
the field as Peabody defenders
chased behind. It was only after
Gloucester scored on a great cross
from Elliot to Napoli that the
Tanners seemed to wake up.
Prep boys soccer pulls
away from Xaverian
PHOTO | ANNE MARIE TOBIN
Keeper Will Machado makes a last-second save at the end of
the first half of Monday night’s game.
“I gave them two days off
without practice, and you saw
how we started the game,” said
McKeen. “But the guys were able
to get their act together and make
plays out there.”
After several minutes of backand-forth
play, Peabody finally
began to gain a foothold. Then, the
Tanners got a much-needed spark
from Alves. After the Tanners
cleared the ball all the way into the
offensive zone, the senior captain
simply outran everyone to catch
up to the ball and put a solid shot
past the Gloucester keeper to tie
the score at 1. That started a string
of goals for Peabody, with two
more scores coming over the next
three minutes. Both goals came on
set plays, with Falcao netting one
on a free kick and Tansey scoring
on a corner kick that was perfectly
set up by Alves. After the dust
settled at the end of the first half,
Peabody led 3-1.
“Scoring a bunch of goals on
set plays is huge for us, because
we really work on that,” said
McKeen. “You can tell the kind of
time we put into those plays when
they work out so well for us.”
The Tanners continued to put
the pressure on at the start of the
second half, scoring less than
10 minutes in. This time it was
Nascimento, who cleaned up a
bouncing ball in the offensive
zone and found the back of the net
to make it 4-1.
Gloucester finally got one back
just a couple minutes later when
Elliot made another stellar pass
into the offensive zone. He found
the foot of Coelho this time, who
fired a shot into the net to get the
score back to a two-goal deficit.
About 10 minutes later, Surman
scored on a corner kick to once
again give Peabody a three-goal
advantage. Atemkeng added a
goal with just under seven minutes
remaining to seal the 6-2 victory
for the Tanners.
Now at 4-2-1, Peabody still has
a tough week ahead with three
more games.
“We’ll get back to practice and
work on some things,” McKeen
said.
By Harold Rivera
DANVERS —- It took the St.
John’s Prep soccer team a full half
to catch steam and find its footing
during Wednesday afternoon’s
Catholic Conference tilt against
Xaverian. But once the Eagles
moved in the right direction, the
Hawks couldn’t keep pace.
St. John’s used a three-goal
rally in the second half to earn a
4-2 win over Xaverian at Cronin
Stadium.
“I don’t think we played particularly
well in the first half but we
definitely made the adjustments
we needed to,” Eagles coach
Dave Crowell said.
“The kids played great in
the second half. It’s a matter of
playing with urgency for 80 minutes
as opposed to 10 minutes
here and five minutes there. They
have to put that together for an
entire half which I think we did in
the second half.”
Junior midfielder Garrison
Jorge led St. John’s with two
goals, while junior midfielder/
forward Kuol Majok and junior
midfielder Jack Hausler each
found the back of the net once.
Senior goalie Christian Buckley
of Peabody earned the start in net
and kept Xaverian off the scoreboard
until the Hawks closed the
game with two unanswered goals
in the latter part of the second
half.
It didn’t take long for the
Eagles to score the game’s first
goal, as Jorge fired a shot into
the back of the net just three minutes
into the game for the 1-0 St.
John’s lead.
Things quieted down from
there, however, and neither team
managed much offensively for
the remainder of the first half.
The Eagles held their 1-0 lead at
halftime.
Jorge boosted St. John’s edge
to 2-0 with his second goal of the
game, this time just two minutes
into the second half.
“Garrison missed the game
Monday (4-3 loss to Silver
Lake),” Crowell said. “We’re not
a very big team, physically. He
gives us size in the middle that
we need. He wins a lot of balls
and he scored two goals today.”
Majok’s goal gave the Eagles
a 3-0 lead with 30:57 remaining
in the game. Hausler picked up a
deflected save and tipped it into
the net with 16:32 to play, placing
Xaverian in a 4-0 deficit.
“We finished our chances,”
Crowell said. “We had a number
in the first half that we didn’t put
away. Mainly I attribute it to the
step up in intensity.
“Xaverian’s a good, physical
team. We matched their physicality
more in the second half.
With us, it’s more mental than
physical. They’re working hard.
We gave the ball away a lot in the
first half with poor passing. We
cleaned that up in the second half
so that was a big difference.”
Xaverian’s Tom Stack put the
Hawks on the scoreboard when
he scored on a penalty kick with
15:48 left in the game. Michael
Olohan added Xaverian’s second
goal 90 seconds later, but the
Hawks’ rally was too little too
late and St. John’s walked away
with the 4-2 win.
The Eagles improved to 6-2-1
on the season.
“We’re 4-0-1 in the Catholic
Conference and we’re always
looking to win that, so this is a big
win for us,” Crowell said. “We’re
beginning to get to a point now
where we can start thinking about
seeding. With two losses at home,
that’s going to be tough. But if we
can win out, you never know.”
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