St. Thomas Aquinas Boys Soccer @ Plymouth Regional 10-28-12- Dover, NH- Go STA Soccer.com

St. Thomas vs Plymouth Regional
NHIAA Quarter Finals
Sunday October 28, 2012

Due to a complete first round upset by all the lower seeds the Saints found themselves hosting a Quarterfinal soccer tournament game.

Plymouth Regional (8-9-1) was the 13th seed in the tournament while the Saints (8-7-3) were the 12th seed. Thanks to Plymouth's upset of Lebanon the players didn't have to get on a bus for a long ride.

I'll use the Foster's article by John Doyle for the game story, but I'll add the following:

Eric Eames, John Sweeney, Tommy Griffiths and Nate Norton all had numerous scoring opportunities set up by making well timed runs and putting shots on net.

The Defense of Noah Schwaegerle, Sebastian Olsen, Aaron Dubois, Brian Ellis, Guy Kassas and Scott Lamoureux did really well to tight mark and step up preventing the Bobcats from getting a shot on goal the entire first half and only allowing 3 all game.

Ben Mardin played very well in goal managing the wet field, ball, his gloves and his defense.

The headline of the Fosters Article talks about an "Improbable run for the 12th seed Saints", but after playing the toughest schedule in Division 2 and with all the challenges this team has had to overcome this season I believe anything is possible. I guess underdogs winning sells papers, so I'm OK with that. The fact the School took down our goals and put away the benches and had the Port-a-potties removed before our Trinity game might have added a little incentive to winning and prolonging the season. The staff did a real nice job helping to get a new field ready for us to play on. It was really nice having a field that was all grass.

From Foster's:

Saints still alive:
Improbable run continues for No. 12 seed

By John Doyle Monday, October 29, 2012

DOVER — The St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys soccer team is most successful when it scores first. So Bryan King’s goal on a free kick in the third minute came at the best possible time for the Saints in their Division II quarterfinal on Sunday.
Now the Saints are going to the semifinals despite having a losing record in the regular season. King’s early goal sparked the No. 12 St. Thomas to a 3-1 win over No. 13 Plymouth on Sunday afternoon.

“First goal is the most important,” King said. “A lot of times this season we got down one goal, and that didn’t really work out for us. It got us going and worked out well.”

King was going right for the goal on the free kick, but was still a little surprised to see it get past Plymouth goalie Jake Buford.

“I was trying to curve it around the wall,” King said about his goal. “It worked out with the wet ball. The goalie couldn’t really get it. I was watching it, and it went off his hands and kind of dribbled in. Then I reacted. It was kind of a delay.”

St. Thomas (8-7-3) will face No. 1 Hollis/Brookine (13-1-3) on Thursday night (6pm) in Nashua. Hollis was a 3-2 winner over No. 9 Portsmouth (8-8-2) on Sunday. Plymouth, whom the Saints defeated 2-0 in the last game of the regular season, ended its season at 8-9-1.

Plymouth was a 3-0 upset winner over No. 4 Lebanon (10-5-2) in their preliminary, giving the Saints the unexpected opportunity to host Sunday’s quarterfinal. The Saints’ good fortune continued in the 30th minute, when Jon Nartiff was brought down in the box by Plymouth’s Brandon Toomey. Nartiff converted the penalty kick for a 2-0 St. Thomas lead.

“In the playoffs, you have to play pretty tight defense and wait for the other team to make mistakes,” St. Thomas coach Scott Suleski said. “Those first two goals were mistakes (by Plymouth).”

Nartiff was driving to the goal along the baseline when he was tripped from behind, and did a good job of selling the foul to the referee.

“He got my ankles and I figured I’d go for a slide,” Nartiff said. “It was close. (I) was a little frustrated. I was happy (the referee) gave it to me. I thought I deserved it.”

The Saints controlled play for most of the afternoon, taking a good deal of pressure off goaltender Ben Mardin, who had high praise for his team’s defense and its anchor, senior Noah Schwaegerle.

“I have to give 100 percent props to our defense,” Mardin said. “Noah is the soul of the team. I know we score a lot of goals, but our defense is definitely what puts us over the top.”

St. Thomas carried the 2-0 lead into the second half, then went up 3-0 in the 54th minute when King sent a rolling shot into the bottom right corner of the net. Plymouth’s Silas Murray cut the Saints’ lead to 3-1 with a goal in the 60th minute.

With the Saints’ regular field worn down to a large mud patch thanks to an entire season of soccer and football, plus recent rains, Sunday’s match was played on a makeshift soccer field located about 100 yards north. Suleski was happy with the switch.

“Having this new field helped,” Suleski said. “This is the first time we played on grass. The funny thing is the last time we did this, we beat Plymouth 3-0 (in the 2008 tournament).”

St. Thomas handed Hollis/Brookline its only loss of the season, 4-1 on Sept. 27 in Hollis.

Game Photos by Nancy Gardella
(Evan Surprenant's mother)

St. Thomas vs Plymouth in NHIAA Quarterfinals