Wahconah Pulls Away in Second Half of Tourney Opener

DALTON, Mass. – Leo Stringer scored a pair of goals Saturday to lead the Wahconah boys soccer team to a 5-1 win over Sci-Tech in the preliminary round of the Division 4 State Tournament.

 

Eli Yetman and Ethan Dudley each scored a goal, and Joey Fontaine and Matt Oakes combined to make seven saves for 25th-seeded Wahconah, which advanced to Monday’s Round of 32 game against No. 8 Rockland.

 

Wahconah (10-5-4) matched its season high for goals in a game but did so while scoring just one goal in the run of play.

 

Stringer’s first goal came on a penalty kick, and his second was a header off Nate Beatty’s corner. Ethan Dudley converted a direct free kick from just outside the 18. And the CyberCats scored an own goal.

 

“I think off corners we’re always dangerous,” Wahconah coach Kyle Lyman said. “I mean, Leo’s tall, he’s physical, he’s great in the middle there, and we’ve got a couple other guys who can get up and go get the balls.

 

“So, yeah, I think set pieces are really good for us. We’ve got to figure out how to do it in the pace of play now.”

 

Wahconah’s first good chance of the game came off another set piece when Stringer’s header off a free kick produced a shot on goal in the 12th minute.

 

Six minutes later, Dudley created a dangerous chance in the run of play when he sent a cross from the right wing into the 18 that was directed on goal, but Sci-Tech keeper Jaiden Navarijo (seven saves) was there to make the stop.

 

It took until the 31st minute for Wahconah to finish.

 

Stringer took a pass from the left wing at the top of the 18 but was tripped by a Sci-Tech defender, drawing a penalty kick. He then went to the spot and drilled a shot to the left of a diving Navarijo to score what turned out to be the only goal of the first half.

 

Wahconah doubled its lead in the 44th minute, but the goal came with a cost.

 

Eli Yetman scored off a through ball up the middle from Alex Roots to make it 2-0 with 36 minutes, 32 seconds on the clock. A Wahconah player, however, took a red card for getting in the face of the CyberCats keeper after the goal, forcing the home team to play a man down the rest of the way.

 

Rather than taking advantage, though, Sci-Tech dug itself a deeper hole with an own goal less than a minute after getting the man advantage.

 

Wahconah would go on to outscore the CyberCats, 3-1, with the man advantage as Lyman’s team played a much stronger second half.

 

“You know, we hadn’t played in over a week, so I think we were trying to shake some rust off,” he said of the first 40 minutes. “Honestly, I thought our second half was much better. A red card is not great. I’d rather play 11-on-11. But we figured it out 10-on-11.”

 

Sci-Tech continued a high-scoring stretch to start the second half when Omid Amiri converted a cross from Masudi Karambizi to make it 3-1 in the 47th minute.

 

And Wahconah finished a stretch of four combined goals in the first nine minutes of the half when Beatty’s corner from the right wing was headed home by Stringer to re-establish the three-goal lead.

 

The final margin was provided by Dudley with 13:20 left to play when his free kick curled over the wall and under the crossbar to make it 5-1.

 

Wahconah won in the preliminary round for the second straight year; last year, it took a 3-2 win on the road to make it into the Round 32.

 

Lyman agreed Saturday that tests against Pope Francis in the Western Massachusetts Class B quarter-finals and Frontier in a Western Mass consolation game helped prepare his team to take on Sci-Tech.

 

“You lose against Pope Francis, 2-0, who’s the No. 1 team in Division 3, I mean, that’s a great result for us,” he said. “We’re not going to do much better than that. We were the eight seed in Class B, and we’re the No. 26 seed at that point in Division 4. [The Cardinals] are the one seed in Division 3. Frontier, they’re 13th in the state for D4. They’re a really good team, too.

 

“It’s always best playing good opponents. We had a few games that were a little bit easier than I would have liked late in the season. So it’s good getting that post-season battle, especially against a Pope Francis, who is going to really compete for a state title. And Frontier, honestly, could take a run for D4. Those two are really great teams, and then you throw Monument in there [on Oct. 20], who’s maybe one of the favorites in D4. I think that’s all good for us. Next year, hopefully we can do that all year long.”

 

Photos from this game to come.