Soccer Spartans win third State Title in four years
Published on November 23rd, 2005
The more things change, the more they stay the same for Jim Carino and his soccer ball-kicking Spartans.
Despite losing 11 seniors and eight starters from last year's team, the Stoneham Spartans emerged victorious again, handing the Hingham Harbormen their first loss of the year Thursday, 3-2 in double OT in the semi-finals in Brockton, and then beating the Belchertown Orioles 1-0 on penalty kicks Saturday in Westborough to garner their first Division II State Championship - a marked accomplishment after winning the Division III State Title two out of the last three prior seasons.
The newest title gives the Stoneham Spartans their third State Title in four years - an unprecedented stretch of good fortune and plain old winning in the history of SHS history.
"This one, I think, is a little more special than the previous two, because we lost 11 seniors, 9 of them starters, we moved up from division three because of the re-alignment to division 2, and here we are," said Carino. "I'm just proud as punch of these guys for the way they handled this."
It didn't look good for Stoneham in the semi-finals, playing the 21-0-1 Hingham, who came out and controlled the play. Hingham got on the board midway through the first half. Brian Holmes sprung Jess Rezende on a breakaway, and he beat John Yerxa to the far side, giving the Harbormen the 1-0 lead with 21:54 remaining in the half.
Hingham controlled the rest of the half, and when the second half began, they seemed to put the game out of reach. With 31:40 remaining in the second half, they struck again. A loose ball in Stoneham's box squirted to Brandon Luttinger, who fired it into the corner of the net to give Hingham the seemingly insurmountable 2-0 lead.
But Stoneham fought right back, striking at 29:38. With a throw in deep in Hingham's end, the Spartans gave the ball to one of their most dangerous weapons: Derek Bambery.
Bamberry threw it in, and Maxime Obongono headed the ball home to cut the deficit to 2-1.
"That's a big weapon of ours," said Carino, referring to Bambery's ability to chuck the soccer ball.
Hingham came oh so close to regaining a two goal lead with 12 minutes left in the game. Kelly Gaston, who scored 31 goals in the regular season, ripped a bomb, but it was tipped off the cross bar by Yerxa, and Stoneham still had a puncher's chance to win the match.
After the big save, Stoneham went back to the Bambery well, again with a throw in coming deep in Harbormen territory. Bambery again launched it into the box, and again Obongono headed it in to tie the game at the 7:39 mark.
"I'm not breaking out the cliché's or anything, but we're an opportunistic team, and if you give us a couple of opportunities, we're going to score," said Carino.
The game went into overtime, where there were a couple of decent scoring chances on both sides, but nobody was able to connect.
The game then went into a second overtime, where it appeared for a moment that Stoneham was about to have its season ended. Rezende broke into the Spartan box, and had a great look at the net. But Yerxa rushed out at him, sliding in and stoning Rezende and keeping Stoneham alive.
"Is John Yerxa the most courageous thing you've ever seen? He is absolutely our tournament MVP, he's been doing that for five straight games," said Carino.
Just minutes later, Bambery would strike again. Off an Obongono free kick just outside the box, the ball deflected off Mark DeSantis' head, and found it's way to Bambery, who buried it into the net and sent the Spartans into the finals with the 3-2 win.
"They're not 21-0-1 for nothing. They were a better team than us. They deserved to win this game, but in the second half, we just never stopped. That Hingham team is one of the best teams I've seen in a long time," said Carino.
If facing an undefeated Hingham squad wasn't daunting enough, the Spartans faced a Belchertown team in the finals that had not given up a goal during the entire state tournament.
Stoneham had a good chance to end that streak in the first half, when DeSantis found Obongono with a wide open net, but Obongono couldn't corral the ball and it trickled out of bounds. Other than that however, it was a half dominated by defense, with neither team giving an inch, and neither team getting much going offensively.
The second half was just as tight at the first. Both teams were gridlocked, with nobody giving any ground. Offensive chances were few and far between, and none of them were great chances. For the second straight game, Stoneham was headed into overtime.
"They're a very defensive team, and they know exactly what they are doing. They're very well organized [on defense]," said Carino.
The Spartans had a chance to end the game just 1:30 into the first OT. Obongono crossed the ball over to a wide open Amon Mohammadi, who had an open net but barely misfired and lofted the ball over the crossbar.
Obongono almost ended the game in the second overtime as well. With time almost up, he fired from thirty yards out, but the ball appeared headed into the far top corner of the net. At the last second, Belchertown's outstanding goaltender Sean Teehan leaped and tipped the ball over the cross bar, preserving the game for the moment.
The game stayed tied, and went into penalty kicks, with Stoneham kicking first.
"I did not want to go to penalty kicks. This goalie here is a very special goalie for Belchertown," said Carino.
DeSantis went first, and fired a ball that Teehan got his hands on, and momentarily appeared to have stopped, but the ball squirted underneath him and into the net to give Stoneham a 1-0 PK lead.
Gregory Keefe was first up for Belchertown, and he beat Yerxa to tie it at 1-1. Obongono then went for Stoneham, burying his shot into the lower right corner to make it 2-1 Stoneham. Mike Quirk shot next for Belchertown, misfiring wide right, giving Stoneham the inside track for the title.
Bambery came right after the Quirk miss, and buried his own shot to give Stoneham the 3-1 PK edge. Josh Bronner came up next for the Orioles, scoring to make it 3-2 Stoneham. Matt Pappa was came up next for Stoneham, and fired right at Teehan who stopped it, giving Belchertown some signs of life.
Chris Nobles was next for Belchertown, and took advantage of the Pappa miss, burying his shot into the bottom left corner of the net to tie the game.
Robert Pacini was last to act for Stoneham, and scored a huge goal, giving the Spartans a chance to win. But Tim Terbush beat Yerxa for Belchertown, sending the game into sudden death penalty kicks, meaning the first team to score while the other team did not score would be the state champion.
Unsung hero Phil Symons was first up for Stoneham, and he buried his shot, giving Stoneham another chance to win. It was up to Joe Deady of Belchertown, but he launched his shot high and wide, and Stoneham was a state champion for the third year in a row.
Subscribe and get Home Delivery of The Independent
Save 36% off the newstand price — that's like 18 FREE issues!