2011 St. Thomas Aquinas Boys Soccer
vs. Portsmouth 8/26
St. Thomas played host to the Portsmouth Clippers in a game that helped raise money to help fight cancer. Funds were donated to Dana Farber in memory of Rylie Cruz. The teams played the game with Select "The Cure" Pink soccer balls. Players wore pink sweatbands and had pink laces in their cleats to show their support.
The game was played on a hot late summer afternoon. The Saints took the field with Neil Hallock in the net, Tri-Captain David Ham lead a defense of TJ Tetreault, Noah Schwaegerle, Evan Surprenant and Jon Kiskinis. Tri-Captains Ed Conroy and Jeff King lead a midfield with Connor Bailey and Andrew Civiello on the outside and Jon Nartiff on the point. Five of the starting eleven were returning starters and five other players had varsity experience from last year. That experience was evident right from the start as St. Thomas jumped out to an early lead on the clippers.
The attack pushed down near the Portsmouth net and Conner Bailey sent an arching cross pass over to the other side of the field where Andrew Civiello banged home the season opening goal at 4:28.
Less than a minute later at 5:12 Jon Nartiff applied hard pressure and stole the ball from the Clipper defense to go in alone on the Port Keeper who made the first save but Nartiff followed up slamming the rebound in.
Tapley Taylor went in at Striker, Connor Kennedy and Joe Duplisea subbed in at outside mids. Two minutes later Duplisea intercepted a pass and sent a ball to King who buried it at the 9:05 mark. Duplisea picked up an assist in his first varsity game.
Bryan King went in at striker in his varsity debut while Bailey and Civiello re-entered.
At 15:06 Bryan King took a Civiello pass and beat the Clipper keeper for his first varsity goal.
It wasn't until 18:36 when Portsmouth finally broke through the Saints defense and Eric Frizzell took a shot that put the Clippers on the scoreboard.
Sebastian Olsen and Aaron Dubois went in on defense. Dubois was making his varsity debut. Nartiff reentered. The game seemed to settle into a back and forth battle.
Xavier Quinn saw time in both the outside and the center midfield in his varsity debut. Quinn is the first freshmen since Conroy to earn a spot on the varsity team.
At 34:21 Taylor sent a hard shot that pinged off the top corner post. David Ham scooped up the rebound and sent a through pass to Conroy who rocketed a shot into the upper corner.
The Clippers came back at 37:43 as once again Frizzell broke in and put a shot into the Saints goal.
The teams went into Halftime with a score of 5-2.
The Second half started off a bit slow with both teams trying to control the ball and move on the offensive. Both defenses held strong. Hallock came up with a number of great saves and the Portsmouth keeper made a quite a few athletic stops.
Tom Griffiths and Ben Mardin entered the game on defense, while Jon Douglass entered as an outside midfileder, all making their varsity debut. The defense marked Frizzell and frustrated him a number of times in the second half.
At 59:23 the Clippers were awarded a direct kick which found the head of Richie Carr who redirected the ball into the net to bring the score to 5-3. This was the closest that Portsmouth would come during the game.
After a number of thwarted attempts, the Saints attack broke down the Clipper Defense again. At 71:58 Jeff King sent a brilliant ball to Conroy who rocketed off another blast into the back of the net for his second goal.
Portsmouth took the kick off and St. Thomas quickly took control of the ball. Less than a minute later at 72:57 the King brothers teamed up Bryan sent Jeff a pass which he sent into the Clipper goal.
Jacob Ham and Brian Ellis went in as outside midfielders and John Sweeney entered as striker to cap off their varsity debut.
Ed Conroy and Jeff King both had two goals in the season
opener, not bad for the returning Gold and Silver boot winners.
The St. Thomas Boys Soccer team would like to thank the School and all the fans for their support in our efforts for Rylie's memory.
Fosters/Portsmouth Herald Story 8/27
Thanks to the St. Thomas athletic staff for helping us pull off our home opener "Pink" Game
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