One Win Away

MARLBOROUGH – Bromfield and Sutton have strong winning soccer traditions. Both boys’ soccer teams play physically and they play with pride. Tuesday’s Final Four winner between these two rivals came down to simple execution.

“You know, we had a scouting report on them,” Bromfield coach Alex Horne said after his team beat the Sammies, 3-1, in the MIAA Division 5 tournament on Tuesday. “We knew they were going to be tough. We knew they were going to challenge us.”

Sutton did challenge the top-seeded Trojans early and often, but overzealous play may have gotten the best of the fifth ranked team in white and green uniforms. Just five minutes into the contest, Bromfield’s Brendan Listzwan and Sutton’s Griffin Melia pursued a bouncing ball in the penalty area to the left of the Sutton goal. Listzwan had the inside position as he cut off Melia’s angle to the ball. Melia then lowered his shoulder and placed his elbow on Listzwan’s lower back, but when the Trojan’s freshman wouldn’t give an inch, the Sammies senior captain extended his arm, knocking Listzwan to the Assabet Valley turf. It was not clear if Melia placed both hands on Listzwan’s back when he extended his arm, but the point became moot when the referee’s whistle blew.

“Brendan the freshman,” senior captain Ryan McNulty said smiling. “We just call him freshman because he’s the only freshman out there for us. Yeah, and you couldn’t tell, right? He’s out there battling.”

As Listzwan tumbled to the ground, Melia raised his arms in the air to proclaim his innocence. But the ref didn’t buy it and awarded Bromfield with a penalty kick, the third one in the postseason for the Trojans. “You know there’s two hands on the back and we used that to our advantage to build some momentum,” Horne said.

The first goal in any game is important. It’s always better to play in front rather than chase the score. Bromfield had an excellent opportunity to get that first goal

Amlyl Aitdowd and Gavin Acocelli battle for the ball. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

with McNulty taking the penalty kick. Bromfield has had a lot of success with set pieces throughout the season, especially in the playoffs. He converted a few penalty kicks in the Central Mass tournament against Maynard and Douglas, as well as converting a penalty kick in the 3-0 victory over Mt. Greylock on Saturday.

By taking so many penalty kicks, McNulty suspected having a scouting report on his penalty kicking tendencies. As a result, he prepared himself for just this moment. As he placed the ball on the penalty dot about eight yards in front of Sutton goalkeeper Connor Mulderig, he already had his mind made up on how he was going to kick the ball.

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” McNulty said as he sarcastically lowered his voice. “They scouted me ‘cause I go right every time, but I went to practice the other day and shot it left twenty, twenty-five, fifty times all practice. So, I knew where I was going.”

Unfortunately for Mulderig, he guessed wrong as he dove in the opposite direction. “I can’t say it was in the corner, but he went the wrong way ‘cause he thought I was going right.”

The Trojan’s would have a lead they would never relinquish. “So, we’ll take it. And that was a huge, huge goal. We built off that.”

“I think we had our chances,” Horne said. “And it was building and we converted on the PK and then it just went from there.”

Sutton did not give up. They picked up their pressure and looked to connect with runners down field with long through balls. About five minutes after McNulty’s penalty kick goal, Sutton had their best opportunity to score in the entire first half. Bromfield’s Theo Bradley tried to control a bouncing ball about five yards outside Sutton’s penalty area, but he was unsuccessful. Instead, he deflected it to Sutton midfielder Nick Culross who quickly punched the ball fifteen yards ahead to Sutton captain Dillon Dussault. With his head up, Dussault connected on a long through ball with the speedy Allex Martins on a breakaway down the center of the field. Martins had the Bromfield defense beat on the play as defenders Jayden Liu, Geraghty Vellante, and Samuel Secor desperately chased from behind. Bromfield goalkeeper Tucker Madison sprinted to the top of the penalty box and squared himself for the oncoming Martins. As Martins approached Madison, the Bromfield striker tried to pop the ball over the seemingly helpless goalkeeper, but instead arching the ball into the net, he got his foot too far under the ball and popped it over the crossbar instead.

Dillon Dussault beats Aitdowd to the ball. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

Following the play, Martins dropped to his knees in disbelief. He knew he missed a golden opportunity to even-up the game. The three defenders tightened up their coverage and made a point to mark Martins, limiting Sutton’s breakaway capabilities. Liu, Vellante, and Secor would not allow another breakaway the rest of the game.

“Yeah, it’s huge,” Horne said about his defenders. “I mean I know it sounds cliche, but defense wins championships and the boys took care of the job today … Our back line played out of their mind. The word timid and lack of composure isn’t even in our vocabulary anymore.”

The Trojan’s used another set piece to extend their lead with less than two minutes in the first half when senior Amlyl Aitdowd nailed a free kick directly in the box to Bradley. “We have a lot of great aerial players this year,” McNulty said. “And Bradley won a header perfectly” to the left of the wide-open goal where junior forward Tafara Vera simply finished the scoring play. “Great job by him on a cleanup goal. That’s what we need in the playoffs.”

Horne said “we work set plays every practice of the year and we executed it the way we wanted to on that play … [the second goal at the end of the half] was instrumental. You know, Sutton’s a good team. We knew that they could apply some pressure and create some good opportunities … We knew we needed to put two or three in the back of the net which we did.”

“That’s what we practice,” said senior captain Cameron Avola. “We do that all the time … You can tell today when you watch these guys, we wanted it more and it showed.”

Sutton was not about to go quietly into that good night. The Sammies came out aggressive in the second half and were able to slant the field in Bromfield’s defensive

Brendan Listzwan tries to out muscle Samuel Cliadakis. Photo by Kevin Paul Saleeba

zone. Senior Shea Blanchard won a perfect header directing the ball right to Dussault, who collected it near the penalty spot. He then kicked a perfect low ball past the diving Madison, just inside the right post to bring Sutton within one goal, 2-1.

Bromfield never panicked in this situation. They just regrouped and refocused. “What we said to ourselves after that goal was just collect ourselves and start playing our game,” said Vellante. “Everything has to be perfect from then on. And that’s the expectation of us that cannot be faltered in any sort of way and that’s that championship mentality that makes us who we are.”

The Bromfield defense did clamp down on the Sammies’ comeback attempt and the Trojans scored on another header from Alexander Myles, who finished off a high arching cross from Vera along the left side of the penalty area into the back of the net, essentially ending all hopes of a Sammies comeback.

The Trojans will play in the finals on Saturday against Douglas at Doyle Field in Leominster at 11 a.m. This will be a re-match of the Central Mass finals game played last month that saw Bromfield beat Douglas, 3-2, in the rain and mud. The Tigers beat Westport, 3-0, in their semifinals game on Wednesday to advance to the finals.

When the game ended, Horne said his team “played physical. They didn’t get knocked down. They held their ground.” As his team celebrated on the sideline near their bench, Horne casually approached his players holding a soccer ball high in the air. His happy and boisterous team could be heard chanting “let’s go” and “one more!” But when they saw their coach, the team became calm.

“Listen up! Listen up!” shouted a few of the players as the once rowdy group quieted to listen to their trusted coach.

“I think we have a new team hobby,” Horne said to his group. “That’s collecting game balls!”

The team roared, “YEAH!”

As they quieted again, Horne spoke to his team, “Congratulations guys!” he said. “That’s the fastest you’ve played all season in the biggest moment of the season … It was all twenty-eight kids on our team today. All the guys on the bench, our back line, with a sound midfield. We won second balls and we were super aggressive up top … Sutton is a top-class program and you know we knew we’d have to really earn this one, which I believe we did tonight.”