The boys’ soccer team will advance to the division three semifinals after beating Scituate 2-0 on Sunday. The teams were well matched. Scituate was seeded fourth with a 13-3-2 record while the Vineyard team was seeded fifth with a 12-2-3 record, and the first half ended 0-0.
“They were a very fast and strong team,” said Coach Esteban Aranzabe. “They put two guys on Jason [Lages] and tried to control our best player.”
Five minutes into the second half, the Vineyard broke through Scituate’s defense and Silas Berlin scored a goal assisted by Jason Lages. Both teams continued playing all out before Miles Jordie scored the Vineyard's second goal with 12 minutes left in the game. Mr. Aranzabe said his team played hard and their motivation for the semifinal game is riding high.
“Everybody knew that it was a playoff and played at 100 per cent,” he said.
On Wednesday at 2 p.m. they will face Norton, the top seeded team with a 17-0-1 record. The game will be held at Brockton.
On Friday they won their first game of the sectionals against Seekonk, 6-0. The Vineyard team played a strong offense, with nearly 20 attempts on goal.
“It was hard in the beginning,” Mr. Aranzabe told the Gazette after the game. “They defended very, very well. It took 20 minutes to score the first goal. After we broke their back, we found a way to keep scoring.”
Miles Jordi assisted by Jason Lages scored the first goal with 13 minutes left in the first half. Less than five minutes later Gabriel Almeida assisted by Aksel Cooperrider scored the second goal.
By halftime, with the score 2-0, the Vineyard’s home uniforms were more brown than white, partially because the heavy fog made the field slick, and partially due to the ferocity with which the boys played. Mr. Aranzabe called the conditions brutal and said he was happy no one was injured because of the dangerously slick grass.
Though most of the play had Seekonk on defense, they did get a few attempts on goal, all of which were blocked. Keeper Julian Carter started in the net for the Vineyard and Joao Gonsalves played the second half. Joao recently was cleared to play after recovering from an injury for most of the season.
“[Seekonk] had a couple of breaks that were dangerous,” Mr. Aranzabe said. “We tried to pressure them on their half of the field.”
Midway through the second half Jason Lages made the third goal assisted by Pierre Bonneau with a clean hit into the lower left corner of the net. Two minutes later he scored the fourth goal straight into the middle of the net. Less than a minute later, Lages scored his third goal of the game assisted by Nevin Wallis, bringing the score to 5-0 Vineyard.
Spencer Dario made the final goal assisted by Lages in the last two minutes of the game. Mr. Aranzabe said he is going to keep the team focused on the present and take each match as they come.
“We’ll keep doing it little by little,” he said. “One game at a time.”
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