Blasts Watertown 4-1 to avenge last year’s tourney loss
DAN KERRIGAN, a sophomore (#4), dribbles the ball by a Watertown defender. Kerrigan assisted on one of the four goals as the Warrior boys’ soccer team blasted the Red Raiders by a 4-1 score yesterday afternoon at Walton Field. (Donna Larsson Photo)
Published in the October 2, 2015 edition.
By DAN MARGARITA
WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Memorial High boys’ soccer team hosted Watertown yesterday afternoon at Walton Field and sent the Red Raiders away on the losing end of a 4-1 score.
Wakefield coach Matt Angelo was understandably happy to hand the perennial Middlesex League powerhouse a loss.
“Over the last few years this has been a pretty good little rivalry between the two teams. They’ve always been pretty exciting games. Our boys were fired up (because) this is the team that knocked us out of the tournament last year so we wanted a little bit of payback for our seniors from last season,” said Angelo.
Wakefield came out strong to start the game. Mo Janga and Andrew Auld had shots on net but it was Braedan Langlois who broke through with a goal to give Wakefield a 1-0 lead. Langlois lifted a high shot that Watertown keeper Dante Cimino managed to get a piece of, but the ball caromed off the cross bar, hit Cimino in the back and went into the net for a goal.
“They’re a technically very strong team and they play with pace. They’re very skilled with the ball and we trained for that with a three to four day break and we really prepped for them today with four goals, which is awesome,” Angelo said.
Wakefield continued to press Watertown and the pressure paid off with a goal from Ben Clark to make it 2-0.
Then Juan Maysonet pushed his way through the Watertown defense and scored to boost the Wakefield score to 3-0. Maysonet scored again late in the first half to give Wakefield a 4-0 lead, where it stood at halftime.
“Juan played outstanding today. We actually moved him to the attacking mid. He’s been a striker and an outside mid for us, so we put him in the center of the field hoping he would do exactly what he did today. He was our key target on the offense and he got a lot going for us,” praised Angelo.
The second half began with Watertown taking control, although as Angelo noted, it was more likely to strategic changes than a Wakefield letdown.
“Maybe a little, but what it mostly was is that they switched their game plan up and they ran an extra striker up high and they played long ball against us. When you play long ball against our backs it’s really tough to get a possession going from there. It’s really tough to get a ball to settle down and play so it disrupted us for the first 15 to 20 minutes and threw us off our game.”
The early pressure paid off with a goal from Watertown’s Danny Zamora to make it 4-1 but Wakefield was able to readjust.
“We called a time out and re-settled and I think the rest of that half was a competitive match,” said the coach.
The victory came after Wakefield was blanked by a 3-0 score against Burlington in the Kicks For Cancer Tournament which was held last Saturday at Concord-Carlisle High School.
The first goal was scored in the eighth minute when Ken Niyonzima finished off a pass from Brendan Claflin.
Burlington didn’t score again until the 10 minute mark of the second half as Claflin put the ball in the back of the net. Peter Lynch earned the assist.
The final goal was scored by Claflin with Lynch assisting on the tally.
Wakefield is now 3-5-1 overall on the season and 3-4-1 in the Middlesex League Freedom division. The Warriors face Winchester on Monday afternoon on the turf at Knowlton Stadium.
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At Walton Field
Watertown……….0 1— 1
WAKEFIELD……..4 0 — 4
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First Half — Wak, Langlois (un.) 10:00. Wak, Clark (Kerrigan) 15:00. Wak, Maysonet (un.) 17:00; Wak, Maysonet (un.) 31:00.
Second Half — Wat, Zamora (un.) 3:00.
Saves — Wak, Dascoli (8). Wat, Cimino (12).
