By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The boys varsity soccer team is headed back to the playoffs after tying Cohasset 1-1 Tuesday and beating Martha’s Vineyard for the second time this season – and only the second time in team history – 1-0 last Wednesday.
The Whalers improved to 8-3-2 overall (4-0 in the Lighthouse Conference) with five games remaining in the season. Nantucket is scheduled to host Sturgis Friday and Norwood Saturday.
The Whalers have not lost since Oct. 4 and much of their success can attributed to growing confidence in and the success of sophomore goalie Alex Perkins. The first-year varsity starter has tallied three shutouts in the last five games and has not allowed more than one goal in a game during the last six.
“You never know how a player is going to progress during a season, and I think out of all of our players, Alex has made the most progress since day, which is giving us a lot of confidence and we have had great results,” head coach Rich Brannigan said. “There was a little bit of unknown. He was basically a rookie goalkeeper. There was an unknown with the defense with what was going to happen behind them. I think you could see a huge marked difference between our first four games and our last six in a row.”
With the increasing confidence growing game by game, the Whalers traveled to Cohasset for a rematch against the Skippers squad they had defeated 2-1 last week.
Emerson Guzman and Will Lendway teamed up to put the first goal on the board midway through the first half. On the left side of the field, Lendway won the ball out of the back and carried it through the midfield. Guzman, playing on the outside, made a darting run to an empty space and took the feed with room to create. The junior midfielder put a left-footed shot on the ground past the diving keeper for the 1-0 advantage.
The Whalers led 1-0 at the half and seemed to have the edge until the weather turned against them.
“It started raining, which really changed the game a lot for us. We are a kind of team that wants the ball on a nice, dry field and can play a little finesse game – passing, moving it around – and that definitely didn’t happen in the second half. It got ugly and we didn’t get a chance to possess the ball,” Brannigan said.
Midway through the half, the Skippers caught a lucky break on a crossing pass from the right side of the field. The shot bounced off three Nantucket players and a Cohasset player and found its way to the back of the net to tie the game.
The Whalers were outplayed for the rest of the second half as the Skippers took advantage of their struggles in the wet weather to pressure on the offensive end of the field. Perkins made nine saves, including key stops on a slick ball in the second half.
Last Wednesday the Whalers traveled to the Vineyard for the rematch against their island rivals. In front of the opponent’s home crowd, a repeat performance would not be an easy task.
“We knew the Vineyard was probably better than a 5-2 game (The margin of victory the last time the two teams played). We prepped them about going in and not being overconfident but playing with the right kind of confidence,” Brannigan said.
It was an intense, defense-oriented game on both sides of the ball with the Whalers making the more dangerous offensive attacks throughout the game. While the Whalers were cutting through the Vineyard defense and playing the ball in front of the goal mouth, the Vineyard could not penetrate the Whalers’ defensive core and was settling for less-threatening outside shots.
“Our goals-against ratio is very low in this last stretch of seven games. Our defense has really shored up and that was definitely one of the key points to the game,” Brannigan said.
Henry Farrell at stopper and Carols Portillo at sweeper flanked by Will Lendway on the left and Devon Kohler on the right allowed only four shots on Perkins, who earned his third shutout in four games.
While right midfielder Jose Ramirez played more of a defensive game matched up against a pressing right-side Vineyard offense, on the other side of the field Guzman was creating the opportunities up front for Philipe Bazilio and Roneik Gordon.
“We were able to build some nice attacks and possessions. When we got the ball outside to Emerson, he was able to take players one-on-one or dribble along the sidelines, using his skill to beat a player in scenarios which opened up a lot of space for Philipe and Roneik,” Brannigan said.
After a scoreless first half, the Whalers reviewed the game plan over the break. Six minutes into the second half, it paid off.
Bazilio and Gordon worked the ball into the offensive third of the field, and Bazilio took a right-footed shot which ricocheted off a Vineyard defender and bounced to the 18. Guzman and the Vineyard goalie immediately recognized the loose ball and sprinted toward it. As the goalie dove to smother the ball, Guzman got his foot on it and sent it underneath the keeper into the net for the 1-0 advantage.
The Vineyard made two dangerous attacks toward the end of the game, but failed to net the equalizer.
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