Bromfield Beat Douglas in Close District Championships

MARLBOROUGH – With the score tied 2-2 and less than five minutes to go in the Central Mass Athletic Director’s Association Division 3 Finals game on Saturday, Bromfield midfielder Amlyl AitDowd was fouled in the Douglas penalty area. By rule, the Trojans were awarded a penalty kick.

“As soon as I saw Amlyl get taken down in the box, I knew what I had to do,” said Bromfield senior captain Ryan McNulty.

As the Trojan’s designated penalty kicker, McNulty’s focus immediately turned to his mental preparation for the kick. “I have a penalty [kick] routine that helps me keep my cool,” he said.

When McNulty bent down to place the ball on the designated mark in front of the Douglas net, he said “I already envisioned how it would go down in my head before I stepped up.”

Douglas senior goalkeeper Pat Welliver hopped up-and-down on his goal line as McNulty took a few steps back to line up his kick. A hush fell over the packed stands at the Marlborough Middle School’s Noble Field as both the once boisterous Douglas and Bromfield fans collectively held their breath. The top-ranked Trojans and the second-seeded Tigers battled for 75 minutes to a draw to this point in the contest and the outcome of this hard-fought championship game rested on the right foot of McNulty. He then simply ran to the spot and drove his foot through the ball. The goalkeeper guessed and dove to the left, but McNulty aimed to the right.

“Everything that happened after that was what I expected,” McNulty said following the game. “With the ball ending up in the back of the net.”

McNulty then sprinted to the left corner of the field, jumped into the air with a fist pump and turned toward his teammates, who swarmed around their captain to celebrate what proved to be the game-winning goal.

“It was a crazy feeling for sure,” McNulty said. “Having an opportunity to pretty much win a district title for your school in a single kick is not something you get often, so when I saw the goalie dive the wrong way and the ball hit the net, the feeling was amazing.”

As for the valiant Douglas squad, a team that overcame a 2-0 first half deficit to tie the game in the second, losing on a penalty kick was a tough pill to swallow. “It’s unfortunate they called a penalty kick with five minutes left, but that’s how it goes sometimes,” said Douglas head coach Alex Ferguson.

Much like in the semifinals, Bromfield and Douglas battled rain and a slick field. The Tigers initially controlled the pace of play with intense early pressure, however, Bromfield’s back line held long enough for their offense to get going.

The first half turning point came on a through ball to McNulty who had a breakaway at about the 25-minute mark. As he dribbled down the center of the field, he pushed the ball a little too far and lost possession. Douglas’ starting goalie, sophomore Gavin Gualtieri, saw the loose ball and sprinted forward in an attempt to trap it. However, as he dove for the ball, McNulty slid like a baseball player stealing second base and simultaneously kicked the ball as Gualtieri cradled it in his bread basket on the ground. Gualtieri was shaken up after the collision, but was able to get up and walk it off.

To the dismay of the Douglas bench, McNulty was not penalized on the play due to the fact he made contact with the ball first. The play had an effect on the play of both teams. Douglas stopped attacking and got back on their heels while Bromfield turned up their intensity. Then at about the 27-minute mark, Bromfield junior Alexander Myles beat Douglas senior midfield Jacob Triber to a 50-50 ball along the sideline and popped a through ball near the corner of the Douglas penalty area. Bromfield freshman Brendan Listzwan and Douglas sophomore defender Logan Hooper chased it down and pushed each other at the same time. Listzwan was able to force the ball out-of-bounds off Hooper for a right corner kick. For the second game-in-a-row, Myles launched a perfect kick into a dangerous area at the top of the box. Senior Jayden Liu headed the ball perfectly down toward the right corner of the net and out of the reach of the diving goalkeeper.

“Jayden Liu has been on fire with his corner kick conversion rate,” McNulty said. “Today showed that once again. Getting that goal was huge at the time.”

“It looked like after they scored the first goal, we were a little bit in shock,” Ferguson said. “We sat back ‘cause we were worried about giving up shots, but that’s not the thing you do when you’re trying to not give up shots. You have to try and pressure the ball and force them to go backwards, which we did for a while.”

With all the momentum, Bromfield kept the pressure on as Myles launched a shot about 25 yards from the Douglas goal. Gualtieri was able to stop the initial shot diving to the ground at the top of the goal box, but he could not control the rebound as it bounced a couple yards in front of him to the feet of Bromfield junior Tafara Vera. Vera kept his body controlled and simply popped the ball into the net over the vulnerable goalkeeper.

“Against Maynard, Tafara came close multiple times, but today he found a way to score a huge goal for us,” McNulty said. “He has been one of our consistent scorers this year and I thought he was one of the most composed players on the pitch today … Considering that we won by a very slim margin today, both [Liu] and Vera’s goals were extremely important.”

“You know it’s one of those games where weather has an impact and the ball is going to skip a little bit,” Ferguson said. “I mean, realistically, in the first half, the first goal they scored was a good goal. The second goal was a juicy rebound right at my keeper. ”

Trailing 2-0 at the half, Douglas regrouped with a new goalkeeper and new intensity. “We had a talk at halftime that we were sitting back too much, giving up shots,” Ferguson said. “We told them to pressure up a little bit more and stop panicking when we get the ball. Start playing possession like we know we can and we created a couple opportunities there.”

The Tigers got immediate results from relentless pressure to start the second half. Just two minutes in, Douglas sophomore forward Owen Gray blasted a shot just inside the penalty area. Bromfield goalkeeper Tucker Madison made the initial stop from his knees, but he could not control the rebound as it was deflected a few feet to his left. Bromfield defender Kyle Tracey stumbled to try to beat Douglas midfielder Kyle Squire to the loose ball, but Squire reached it first and kicked the ball into the open net to bring the Tigers within one.

Bromfield junior Tafara Vera scores the Trojans_ second goal on this play. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

“You know, we started passing the ball a lot better and pushing balls to the side and moving from the outside to the inside,” Ferguson said. “And that’s how we created some opportunities.”

Then, with about eighth-and-a-half minutes to go in the game, Douglas’ relentless pressure led to their second goal. Tigers’ junior defender Ryan Bonin hit a header into the box, which caused a big scrum for the ball. Sophomore Chris Dane was able to get a handle on the ball and put it past Madison and sliding defender John Wilkins for the tie.

As Bromfield seemed to be reeling. McNulty said “we had one or two mental lapses as a team which led to Douglas scoring their goals. When you have those mistakes against a team of Douglas’ caliber, you have to expect them to take advantage of that, which they did.”

Once the game was tied, it was Bromfield’s turn to mount a counterattack which led to the game-winning penalty kick. “Our motto for the past four years has been, ‘find a way.’ And today was no different,” McNulty said. “Our mindset was just to keep playing our game, and not lose our composure. Soccer is a momentum sport, and when a good team like Douglas gains that momentum, the best thing you can do is just stay calm and play.”

Next up for these two teams will be the state tournament. Seedings will be announced this week. Going forward, both teams said they will be prepared for long playoff runs.

Ferguson said Douglas, despite the loss, knows they can play with anyone. “They’re gonna be hungry,” he said about his team. “They’re gonna be hungry. We know we can play with anybody in our division. We know we can … Any given day anybody can win. If we play like we did when we were sitting back giving up those two goals, we might be out in the first round. But if we play like we did in the first 15 minutes of the second half, I think we can beat anybody.”

McNulty said winning the district championship only checks off one box for their team in this playoff run. “This win was a big point in our playoff campaign and really showed our resilience and strength both mentally and physically. I know that everyone on the team is fired up about this win, and everyone is hungry for more goals, wins and trophies.”