NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- It took the McCann Tech boys soccer team 26 minutes to crack St. Joseph’s defense on Monday afternoon.
But once the Hornets did, they got a pair of goals and an assist from junior Javen Reinhardt in a 3-0 win over the Crusaders.
McCann Tech (4-5-2) won for the first time in three outings and posted its fifth shutout of the year in the process.
Stopping teams from scoring has not been McCann’s’ problem. Scoring goals has.
The Hornets have 18 goals in 11 games -- seven of them have come in two games against St. Joe (0-8).
“I give St. Joe credit,” McCann coach Tom Bona said. “They knew how we were going to play, and they packed it in in the middle. They made it tough for us. We had to just be persistent.”
Finally in the 26th minute, Reinhardt centered the ball from the right wing to Lukas Zelazo at the top of the 18. Zelazo beat a pair of defenders to get some space and then slid a shot low and to the right of St. Joe keeper Jack Perenick (10 saves).
Six minutes later, Reinhardt won a 50/50 ball on the right wing, dribbled into the area and ripped a shot inside the near post to make it 2-0.
He nearly got his third goal just before half-time when he charged on a through ball inside the 18, but Perenick came off his line to deny the chance and give St. Joe a chance going into the break.
It stayed a two-goal game until the midway point of the second when Reinhardt scored another unassisted goal.
Although McCann dominated the game in terms of shots (13-2), possession and corner kicks (13-3), the Crusaders were able to keep things relatively close.
Part of that was the Hornets’ inefficiency on set pieces. It wasn’t until the 75th minute that the home team was able to generate a shot on goal off a corner kick.
“We’ve been working on ‘em, and we’ve scored goals a lot this year on corners,” Bona said. “It just didn’t seem the guys were working as hard as they should have. And I think I told them that at half-time.
“We had more corners in the second half and still didn’t score a goal. That last one was close, and we had one header that just deflected away. But they need to learn how to finish. We’ll work on that.”
With seven games left to play, the Hornets will need to finish better in the 18 if they want to finish their season in the Western Mass playoffs.
“It is a rebuilding year, but I really feel that we’ve lost a few games that we should have won or tied,” Bona said. “We are having a hard time -- and today you saw it -- putting the ball in the net. If you can’t put the ball in the net, you’re definitely not going to win. That’s where we’ve been at.”
McCann goes to Smith Vocational on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the Hornets beat the Vikings, 2-0, in North Adams.
St. Joe goes to Taconic on Friday.
