St. Thomas @ Trinity
Thursday October 25, 2012

The weather was perfect for a fall soccer tournament game.  The Saints traveled to Derryfield Park in Manchester for the second time this season.  It was just a week ago Monday that St. Thomas held a 1-0 lead at halftime and fell to Trinity 2-1

Trinity (11-6) was the 5th seed in the tournament while the Saints finished their season 6-7-3 and was the 12th seed.

The bus was full as a number of JV players were brought up to fill out the Roster.  As the bus was leaving the parking lot coach looked down at the field and saw the school staff taking apart the goals to put them away for the season.  Coach pointed out to the team that the school didn't have much faith in them and thought this was the last game of the season. He challeneged the players, "Let's work extra hard so they have to put them back up."

Ian Boudrow, Ryan Kelly, Nate Norton, Theo Psiridis, and Liam Sweeney

We pulled into Derryfield Park and the bus driver opened the doors to drop us off in front of two tipped over Port-a-potties.  The fresh fall air was ripe.

There was a large crowd from Trinity there to support their home team.  St. Thomas had a large number of faithful parents and family there to cheer them on.

The Saints took the field with Ben Mardin in goal.  The Defense was Noah Schwaegerle, Sebastian Olsen, Aaron Dubois and Guy Kassas.  The Midfield was Evan Surprenant, Bryan King, TJ Tetreault, Tommy Griffiths and Brian Ellis.  Jon Nartiff as Striker.

The Saints were still without Eric Eames for a second game, as he was recovering from a concussion.

The Saints took the kick off but lost the ball to Trinity and they quickly mounted an attack that ended with a high shot over the net.  St. Thomas took the goal kick and moved the ball up through the midfield.  They put together a nice possession and worked it down for a shot and the Trinity Keeper made the first save of the game. 

At 7:51 the Saints sent a ball through the box and Surprenant ran on to it at the 6 yard line.  The Trinity keeper was diving to make the save and the well struck shot hit the cross bar, pinging loudly and flew back outside the 18 yard line.  St. Thomas quickly worked the ball back around and at 8:22 Jon Nartiff sent a ball through to Bryan King who beat the last defender and the keeper.  The Saints we up 1-0 on Trinity again.

 

 Simon Smith and Andrew Marino went in at outside midfield.

St. Thomas continued to mark well on defense and break up all the Trinity attacks.  They possessed the ball well up through the midfield.

 John Sweeney and Xavier Quinn went in at outside midfield,  Scott Lamoureux went in at defense to add their help to the Saints game plan.

St. Thomas working the ball down the sidelines well and controlling play. 

.  Liam Sweeney and Jared Ham and went in for the Saints offense at midfield and Nate Norton went in at Striker.

With less than five minutes left in the half St. Thomas committed a foul giving Trinity a direct kick from 35 yards out of the Saints box.  The direct kick was sent into the crush of players in the box and was headed by a St. Thomas defender and went into the net for a disappointing "own goal".  The game was now even.

 

St. Thomas put only 3 shots on net in the first half and Trinity had 4.

Halftime found the game tied up 1-1 but the Saints were confident. 
They had played well and they would be going down hill in the second half.

Trinity took the Second half kick off but this time St. Thomas intercepted and worked it down into the Trinity box for a shot on goal.

At 53:06 the Saints worked the ball down into the Trinity box and a number of shots were blocked by defenders.  Sebastian Olsen rounded up a deflected shot and passed it over to Simon Smith who sent it back into the far corner of the net for his first varsity goal.  St. Thomas was back in the lead 2-1.

The game started to get more physical as Trinity fought hard to gain possession of the ball.  Guy Kassas, Aaron Dubois and eventually Sebastian Olsen all worked well to mark and remove Trinity's scoring threat #4 Jacob Zimmerman.  They marked him so tight he wasn't able to convert any attempts.

Beau Patteson, Noah Guilfuchi and Tony Kassas all took turns at striker to put pressure on the back four of Trinity.

At 33:08 King went in on the keeper and let a shot go that looked like an insurance goal, but pinged off the top corner of the goal post.

As Time ran down the Saints dropped more and more players back to defend.  When the referee blew the final whistle the Saints celebrated moving on for the first time in three years.  No more one and done.

The Trinity Keeper made 4 saves on 8 shots on goal by St. Thomas.

Ben Mardin had 5 saves to help earn the win.

Plymouth Regional (the 13th seed)  upset Lebanon (the 4th Seed) so St. Thomas will host a home Quarterfinal Playoff game Sunday at 2pm.

Not only does the school have to reassemble the goals, but they have to paint a field for a home game...

Here is a post game interview.

 (see it here if it doesn't load in your browser)

From the Portsmouth Herald:

Boys soccer

St. Thomas 2

Trinity 1

MANCHESTER — Simon Smith's first career goal couldn't have come at a better time for the Saints.

Smith scored on pass from Sebastian Olsen 13 minutes into the second half to break a 1-1 tie, as the 12th-seeded Saints upset No. 5 Trinity in the preliminary round of the Division II tournament.

St. Thomas (7-7-3) will host No. 13 Plymouth (8-8-1) in Sunday's quarterfinals, after the Bobcats upset No. 4 Lebanon, 3-0.

The Saints opened the scoring eight minutes into the game when Jon Nartiff crossed the ball to Bryan King for a goal. Trinity (11-6) tied the game at 1-1 with five minutes left in the first half.

Defenders Guy Kassas and Aaron Dubois worked well together in shutting down Trinity's top scoring threat, Jacob Zimmerman. St. Thomas goalie Ben Mardin recorded five saves.

From Foster's

 

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