Boys’ soccer team strikes down another CAL squad

Warriors rally in second half, top Pentucket 2-1 in quarterfinals

Published in the November 9, 2015 edition.

By JIM SOUTHMAYD

HAVERHILL — The Warrior boys’ soccer team had to wait until after its regular season was over to find out whether it finished second in the Middlesex League Freedom division and qualified for the state tournament or not.

Wakefield has certainly made the most of its postseason opportunity with two state tournament victories.

The Warriors sent another Cape Ann League Kinney division team home as they posted a 2-1 triumph over Pentucket last night in a Div. 3 North quarterfinal contest played at Trinity Stadium in Haverhill.

The contest was changed to Haverhill and it was night game due to the fact the field at Pentucket Regional High School was aerated and was unsuitable for the soccer tourney game to be played there yesterday.

Wakefield (8-8-4), which defeated Triton by a 1-0 tally in the first round, advanced to the semifinal round which will be played on Wednesday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Manning Field in Lynn. The Warriors will take on 10th-ranked Tewksbury which defeated Marblehead by a 2-1 score yesterday in another quarterfinal game.

The Warriors rallied from a 1-0 deficit at halftime with two second half goals. Wakefield dominated the second 40 minutes of play and could’ve had four or five goals on the scoreboard with how well they played.

“I have never been more proud of any of the teams I’ve coached than I am with this team tonight,” said head coach Matt Angelo. “I’ve been coaching soccer since I was a 15 year old when I started at the youth level. I have never been more proud of any team than this one given the environment they played in tonight.”

Two juniors, Dan Sallade and Mike Leven, scored the Wakefield goals.

“Dan Sallade and Mike Leven, they have hung in there all season for us,” said Angelo. “They may be small in stature at 5-2, but they both played like they were 6-5.”

While the two juniors came up big offensively, senior keeper Zack Dascoli made some brilliant saves to keep the score at 1-0. One of those saves came on a breakaway early in the second half by senior forward Kyle Sedler who was the CAL Player of the Year and the Sachems leading scorer by far.

“Zack Dascoli has kept us in every game this year. He is the backbone of this team,” said Angelo. “It’s a different game if we fell behind 2-0. It would have been much tougher for us to come back.”

As it was Pentucket scored the game’s first goal off the foot of Sedler. Sedler collected a loose ball off the foot of defender and dribbled the ball into the box. Sedler deposited the ball into the right corner at 11:27 for a 1-0 Sachems lead.

Both teams played well in the first half and both had several chances.

Pentucket’s Liam McDonough had a dangerous chance that Dascoli punched away. Sedler also had a couple of nice runs which turned into good scoring bids. But he was denied by Dascoli.

Wakefield’s best chance to score a goal came with a little over two minutes in the first half. It even appeared that the Warriors had scored goal off a rebound in front but the play was ruled offside by the officials.

While Wakefield didn’t get the goal the momentum changed after that especially in the second half.

“We changed our formation. We went from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2,” said Angelo. “We were inch or two off in the first half. We also had that goal called back on the offside.

“We made a couple of adjustments in the second half,” continued Angelo. “We picked up our communication on the field. We also got the ball behind the midfielders and up to the two strikers we had playing behind them. We could have had five goals instead of two. We also had the two goals called back.”

The second half began with Dascoli making an outstanding save on a breakaway by Sedler. Soon after Wakefield took its game to a whole other level.

Wakefield tied the game at 1-1 at 15:28 as Sallade, from the right post, pounced on a rebound on a ball that couldn’t be handled cleanly by junior keeper Scott Eichel and put it in the back of the net.

The Warriors appeared to take the lead right after that as senior Mark Melanson made a pass to the left side to senior Mo Janga. Janga looked like he beat a defender and put the ball into the net. But the goal was waved off due to an infraction.

But a minute or two later, Wakefield took a 2-1 lead. Junior forward Juan Maysonet crossed the ball in from the left side. Leven ran onto the ball in front of the net and knocked it by Eichel at 19:10.

After that Wakefield maintained the one goal lead. Dascoli came off his line and took the ball off the foot of sophomore midfielder Jake Dickson at one point. Also late in the game senior defender Andrew Auld won a key 50-50 ball from Sedler.

The Warriors had the ball on the Pentucket side of the field when the final whistle blew and the celebration began.

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MIAA Div. 3 North

Boys’ Soccer Tournament

Quarterfinal Round

At Trinity Stadium, Haverhill

WAKEFIELD……0  2 — 2

Pentucket……….1  0 — 1

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First Half — Pen, Sedler (un.) 11:27.

Second Half — Wak, Sallade (un.) 15:28. Wak, Leven (Maysonet) 19:10.

Saves — Wak, Dascoli (8). Pen, Eichel (14).