Warriors hold on for 1-0 triumph over Triton
MARK MELANSON, a senior captain, scored the lone Wakefield goal as the boys’ soccer team posted a 1-0 victory over Triton Regional in a Div. 3 North first round game yesterday in Byfield. (Donna Larsson File Photo)
Published in the November 6, 2015 edition.
By DAN MARGARITA
BYFIELD — The Wakefield Memorial High boys’ soccer team managed a 1-0 upset victory over Triton Regional High School yesterday afternoon in a Div. 3 North first round game for its first tournament win since 1999.
“Triton, (a number 7 seed), they were on their home field and they were seeded higher than us and they don’t want to lose to an 11 seed. So they got really hungry and I think we gassed a little bit. To be honest, I think the layoff we had hurt us. Our game legs weren’t really there. We trained for it as best we could but our legs just weren’t there,” said Wakefield coach Matt Angelo.
As a result of the victory, the Warriors will be facing third-seeded Pentucket (12-3-3) in a quarterfinal game on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Pentucket Regional in West Newbury.
Wakefield came out strong yesterday with Mo Janga getting Wakefield’s first shot on goal.
The Wakefield pressure paid off and Mark Melanson scored with an assist from Juan Maysonet to give Wakefield a 1-0 lead midway through the first half.
Wakefield had other scoring chances including shots by Andrew Auld, Jon Ingalls and Alejandro Winsor.
Triton nearly tied it late in the half when Wakefield keeper Zack Dascoli stopped a shot by Ross Lojek but couldn’t hang onto the rebound. With Dascoli down, Leo Heffernan had an open net but his shot sailed just over the crossbar as Wakefield clung to the one goal lead.
The second half proceeded to be a completely different game as the Vikings dominated from the opening whistle.
“Once again, Wakefield tries to stress me out as much as they can on a soccer field. Credit to Triton, I thought that the first half we controlled the game. We obviously popped that goal in about midway through and I thought we didn’t make the corrections we wanted to in the second half and Triton did,” Angelo explained.
Khalil Brito fed Hans Ernst with a nice pass in front of the Wakefield net but Ernst fanned on the shot.
Brito, Luke Reiniger and Brandon Barrett all had headers that went either over the net or wide of it and Wakefield continued to keep Triton out of the net to hang on for the win.
“We defended them well. We just cleared the ball out and didn’t let them get into our zone. We had very few offensive opportunities to score in the second half. But on the flip side I think out defense really stepped up,” said Angelo. “We got Andrew Auld back for his first game since his concussion, which was awesome. We had Mark Melanson who must have run over 10 miles today the way he was running from box to box. He did the little things to help out in the back end.
We’ll take the win. (This was) Our first (tournament) win since 1999,” added Angelo.
Wakefield will now take on Pentucket, another Cape Ann League foe. The Sachems finished second in the CAL Kinney division with an 11-2-3 and is 12-3-3 overall. Pentucket and Triton split their two regular season match-ups by 2-1 scores with the home team winning both times.
The key to the Sachems’ success all season long has been balance. Offensively, CAL player of the year Kyle Sedler (22 goals, three assists) leads a lethal Sachem attack and collectively the Sachem defense has allowed just six goals in the past eight games (all wins).
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Div. 3 North
Boys’ Soccer Tournament
First Round
At Triton Regional High School, Byfield
WAKEFIELD…………1 0 — 1
Triton…………………..0 0 — 0
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First Half — Wak, Melanson (Maysonet) 20:00.
Second Half — No Scoring.
Saves — Wak, Dascoli (8). Tri, Heffernan (6).
