By DAN PAWLOWSKI
ARLINGTON — “I guess scoring four goals in the opening game is OK,” joked Wakefield head coach Matt Angelo, forcing a smile from his junior captain Jack Millward as he cleared the trash from the Warrior bench after Wakefield’s 4-2 season-opening victory in Arlington last night.
Wakefield’s leading goal scorer during his 2023 Middlesex League All-Star sophomore season, Millward led by example not only after the game, but during it, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes of the 2024 campaign, both on free kicks from similarly long distances to stake the Warriors to a 2-0 lead. His hat trick made it 3-1 about 15 minutes into the second half and later with the home Spy Ponders pushing hard for an equalizer, Millward closed with his fourth tally in stoppage time to officially put the game out of reach.
The end result was a thrilling win for the Warriors, their third consecutive season-opening victory against a Liberty Division team and second in a row against Arlington.
“I have nothing but respect for Arlington’s program so this is a huge momentum boost for us,” said Angelo.
While Millward’s goal-scoring prowess deservedly stole the show, the Warriors had plenty of players step up to secure the win, especially late in the second half as they defended for their lives against a relentless Spy Ponder attack.
Senior goalie and captain Mouad Khaja, in his first game as Wakefield’s No. 1 keeper, made three acrobatic, highlight-reel saves in the final 15 minutes to maintain a 3-2 advantage, robbing Arlington of what appeared to be multiple, surefire equalizers.
“He was our ‘backup’ last year only because Andrew (Valley) was so fantastic but we knew we had a starter last year,” said Angelo. “I’m not happy we let the shots off but I’m happy he got to showcase his skills today. He’s a fantastic shot stopper — I’d say up there with the best in the league.”
With 14:33 left, “Mo” made his second eye-opening stop, a dive from left to right on a low laser that he met with force to deflect away, matching a similar save a few minutes earlier. His most impressive though, came right after Arlington’s timeout with 6 minutes left, somehow getting a finger on a bending shot labeled for the upper corner.
Millward finished an open opportunity just a minute later after a nice through ball from sophomore Alex De Morais to seal it. The play was started by senior captain Charles Gagne who won the ball in the midfield and fed it up to De Morais.
Millward’s two, early, set-piece finishes both came on low drives through traffic that found their way in. It was an ideal way to start the season.
“We knew they were going to put the foot on the gas pedal so those two early goals helped us dictate the entire half,” said Angelo. “To be fair, I think they outplayed us in the first half but because we got those two we got to do what we wanted to save our legs for later in the game.”
Arlington scored their first late in the half on what would end up being an own goal after an unlucky bounce off an attempted heading clear.
The defense, including the back line led by junior center backs Aidan Bligh and Aden Stevenson and midfielders like Gagne and junior Matt Keefe, buckled in late in the first half and early in the second half to hold the lead before Millward gave the team a two-goal lead again with 24:26 left, finishing off a corner kick from Keefe that snuck under a defender’s foot before Millward found it in the box and poked it in.
Arlington scored on a rebound with 21:30 remaining but Khaja stepped up with his defense tiring to hold the lead and eventually get the win.
The victory, as all against Liberty large schools, means a win for the D2 Warriors over a D1 program, something that will help the team come power rankings time.
Of course, Wakefield isn’t worried about that yet.
The returning starters, Millward, Gagne, Keefe and Bligh, have multiple teammates who gained experience from last year’s run to the Div. 2 State Championship game after their first league title in nearly 35 years, including Khaja, Stevenson, De Morais, and sophomore Guy Revah.
But this year’s team also features six freshmen and plenty of newcomers to the starting lineup after the Warriors graduated 10 from their decorated group of seniors last year.
“We have a lot of question marks this year just because we had a lot of guys graduate who were a staple of the team,” said Angelo who is starting his third season back at his alma mater after leading the program from 2011-2016. “We have a good mix of returning players and new, but overall, we’re a very young team.”
Gagne, Khaja, Sean Callanan, Nick Roehrich and Zach Goc are the only seniors. Together, it’s a group that has encouraged their team to turn the page. The Warriors made history last season but now is a new opportunity.
“We haven’t talked about last year much,” admitted Angelo. “My captains and seniors in general have a done a really good job of spreading the message of ‘last year was last year, this year is this year.’
“But they’ve also tasted that success and they want to get that back so we’re sort of balancing expectations. We’re not even thinking about the postseason right now, we’re just trying to get better every single day and we’ve been seeing great improvements from the team.”
Once again, those improvements have led to expeditious results, something the Warriors will try to continue tomorrow for their home-opener against Woburn, 4:15 p.m. at the Galvin Middle School’s Walton Field. The Tanners will also enter the game 1-0 after beating Stoneham 2-0 in their opener yesterday. Woburn beat Wakefield 2-0 in their only meeting last year.
JACK MILLWARD celebrates his third goal with Matt Keefe (No. 2) and Guy Revah (right) yesterday in Arlington. The junior captain scored four goals in Wakefield’s 4-2 season-opening victory over the Spy Ponders. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
