THE SENIORS of the NRHS boys’ soccer team were honored before their 3-1 win over Pentucket on Oct. 27. Pictured in the front row from left to right is Alexander Johnson, Pressiyan Grigorov, Jacob LaVerdiere, Liam Rodger, Brady Miller, Robert Corvino and Garrett Trentsch. In the back row from left is Jason Emerson, Brodie Mann, Nathan Miller, Travis Long, Josh Stanieich, Jonathan Mangano, Kevin Doble and Ethan Soroko. (Holly Stanieich Photo)
NORTH READING — After dropping its last four games, the NRHS boys’ soccer team was ready to get their season back on track against Pentucket on Oct. 27. First, they needed to honor their 15 seniors in their last home game of the regular season.
In addition to their 15 seniors, the team honored long time coach, Joe Davis, who has been involved with Hornet soccer as a player and a coach for parts of 6 different decades. He is a 1978 graduate of NRHS and has been an assistant coach in the soccer program from 1987-1996 and 2002-2022. He was also the head coach in 1997.
Once the pregame ceremonies were over it was time to focus on a dangerous Pentucket Panthers team.
The Hornets immediately started to string together passes and toward the end of the first minute of play found freshman Gavin Wesley on the right wing for a shot that went just wide of the near post.
The Hornets maintained a strong grip on the ball and the game. Their sustained possession (just under 70 percent for the game) led to Max Gulino settling a ball in the Pentucket penalty area in the 16th minute. He slid a pass to the middle of the field to Kieran Miller. Miller received the pass and then rifled a left footed shot into the right side of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
In the 35th minute, a Hornet player announced his return to the lineup with authority. Sophomore midfielder Matt Fleury has had an injury filled season, but he’s starting to feel closer to 100 percent and he showed what he can do when he’s healthy when he took a pass from Kieran Miller 35 yards from goal and absolutely crushed a shot into the top right corner of the goal for his first goal of the season and a 2-0 lead.
The Hornets didn’t waste time adding to their lead in the second half. Nine minutes into the second half, senior midfielder Kevin Doble ripped a shot on a goal that was saved by the goalkeeper. The rebound fell to senior captain Josh Stanieich who teed up a shot for fellow senior Brady Miller who made no mistake from 15 yards out. Miller put his right footed shot into the upper right corner of the goal to make the score 3-0.
Pentucket was able to cut the lead to 2, but that was as close as they got. The Hornets snapped the four game losing streak and got their 9th win of the season.
One of the referees didn’t show up until 10 minutes after the scheduled kickoff time but the Hornets showed up on time in road rematch against the Panthers on Saturday.
Just 26 seconds into the game, sophomore midfielder Finn Rodger chipped a pass over the Panthers defense and sent in Gulino in alone on the keeper. The sophomore forward calmly chipped the ball over the onrushing ‘keeper and into the goal for a quick 1-0 lead.
Thirty minutes later, senior midfielder Liam Rodger swung in a cross from the left wing and Stanieich rifled a volley past the keeper at the near post for his 15th goal of the season.
Those two goals were all the Hornets needed as senior goalkeeper Travis Long, and his defense of seniors Nathan Miller and Brodie Mann along with sophomore Jackson Wesley picked up their 7th clean sheet of the season.
In the final game of the regular season, the Hornets took on the Vikings of Rockport on Sunday. Rockport was coming off a big 1-0 win over CAL Baker Division rivals Hamilton-Wenham.
The Hornets were a bit weary playing their 4th game in six days, but it didn’t take long for the visitors to shake off the long bus ride and take control of the game. The NR attack, as it has all season, starts with the distribution out of the back from Nathan Miller. Miller was able to find Finn Rodger in the middle of the field early in the game. Rodger and the rest of the midfield had their way with the Vikings early which led to a corner kick in the 7th minute.
Kieran Miller sent an in-swinging corner into the front of the goal that found Stanieich at the far post. The Hornets’ leading scorer made no mistake as he clipped the half volley into the left side of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later, the senior captain would strike again. This time he was sent in behind the defense by Finn Rodger. Stanieich slid the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net for the 2-0 lead.
In the 30th minute, the Hornets extended their lead to three when senior forward Rob Corvino found Liam Rodger on the left wing. Rodger beat two defenders and unleashed a clever bending shot off the outside of his left foot which found the top left corner of the goal.
The lead extended to four early in the second half when Stanieich finished off the hat trick on a pass from Brodie Mann.
The bench got emptied which meant that freshman Massimo Rainieri got his first varsity action.
As of Friday (which did not include NR’s win late on Thursday vs. Pentucket) the team was ranked 17th in Division 3. Final rankings and tournament pairings were announced on Wednesday after press time.
“This was a good way to finish the season,” said head coach Mark Bisognano. “We worked on some things that we weren’t doing well and improved them over the last three games. Despite the heavy load of games over the last week we are relatively healthy. We are not 100 percent healthy, but few teams are by this time of the year. We shouldn’t play again until Nov. 4 at the earliest. Whenever it is we play again, we expect to be ready to go. There’s nothing quite like November soccer.”
