Quick Start, Strong Finish Paces Canton Past Nashoba

 
 
 CANTON, Mass. — Buoyed by a blistering start, a strong defensive effort, and a key insurance goal midway through the second half, the Canton boys soccer team opened tournament play with a win over Nashoba.

The 14th-seeded Bulldogs, who made a historic run to the Division 2 final last year, started this year’s playoff run in grand fashion. Canton scored just over two minutes in and doubled its advantage 10 minutes later. Senior Jake McCabe sealed the deal with a goal in the 59th minute for a 3-1 win over the 19th-seeded Wolves.

Just moments after the opening whistle, Canton was on the attack. Just seconds into the third minute of the game, McCabe found space down the left flank and hit a low service that found its way to the back post. The clearance from the defender went back into the area where senior Drew Garrett took a touch to control and quickly deposited a shot from in close into the back of the net for an instant lead.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

The Bulldogs kept the pressure on and had two good chances in the following minutes. A deflected pass slipped behind the defense that sophomore Owen Morrissey latched onto but the Nashoba keeper was well off his line and closed down the angle.

But six minutes later, Morrissey had his goal with a tap in just inches out from the goal line. A set play on a corner kick saw McCabe drive a low, hard service through the six-yard box and a dummy at the near post from Carson Eagles froze the defense. The ball made it all the way through to the far post where Morrissey tapped it in for a 2-0 lead in the 13th minute.

“It was a tremendous start,” said longtime Canton head coach Danny Erickson. “Drew [stepping up and getting that goal for us early really loosened up our team I think. And we put in a new corner kick at practice yesterday and we saw it was there, the boys executed it awesome to get the second one. That put us in a really good place against a really good team. I thought [Nashoba] was excellent, that was a great high school soccer game. Hats off to Nashoba, they were an exceptionally organized team.”

Meanwhile, in-between Canton’s strong start and insurance tally, the Bulldogs’ defense took center stage in withstanding high, and at times, constant pressure from the visitors.

Although Nashoba cashed in once in the 34th minute, the back four of Matt DeVito, Liam Shea, Ashton Cetoute, and Chris Hamilton — with the help of defensive midfielder Caden Mirliani — didn’t let the Wolves capitalize on that momentum, and denied the visitors time and time again in the second half.

Nashoba took control of the game for the final 15 minutes of the first half. Constant and consistent long balls into the area had to be dealt with by Shea and Cetoute, and junior goalie Nick Ruggeri was up to the task on at least a half dozen good Nashoba chances in the first half.

The visitors cut the deficit in half in the 34th minute after a corner kick went uncleared and Lucas Messier was first to pounce on the loose ball in a scrum in front.

“We were fortunate to get into halftime at 2-1, they were all over us late in the first half,” Erickson said.”Nicky made some great saves for us late in the half. But I thought our second half was really convincing. They were on the ball a ton but they were going to be, they are very organized and a talented group. I just thought we made things difficult for them, and in doing that, we’re pretty dangerous on the counter, especially with Jake.”

The Wolves came out of halftime with a lot of energy and again launched balls forward to put the Canton defense under pressure. But it seemed as though each time the visitors were denied by Canton’s back line, the balance in the game evened out again.

Nashoba earned a throw in deep in the attacking third but it was Eagles that was able to get the first touch to the bouncing ball, deflecting it around a Nashoba player. He then tracked it down, won the battle, quickly looked up the field, and launched a ball into space.

McCabe tracked the ball down and quickly went forward. He went right at the defender, faked a shot to cut past the last man, and rifled a left-footed blast past the keeper to make it 3-1 in the 59th minute.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

“They came out on the front foot in the second half but I just thought out back four, the whole bend don’t break, kind of like the Patriots giving up field goals and not touchdowns, it was a little like that,” Erickson said. “We weren’t getting the ball back quickly but we didn’t give them much. We gave them very little in the second half because our backs were really solid.

“When you play a team like North Attleboro, they have a lot of guys behind the ball and can be hard to score against. [Nashoba] was an attacking team that can be very dangerous but leaving that space for Jake, that’s something teams have to respect. And when you leave it, he can make you pay.”

After the insurance goal, Canton once again found itself with control of the game and the Wolves were unable to really test Ruggeri over the final 20 minutes.

Canton boys soccer (9-6-4) advances to the Round of 16 and will play the winner of #3 Bedford and #30 Silver Lake, who play on Monday.