Sports Roundup: Boys & Girls Soccer Earn Comeback Victories Over St. Mary's
David Creed •
It was a very busy weekend for Whaler sports on the island, and this Whaler sports roundup includes an update on the boys soccer team after a pair of comeback victories to extend their win streak to five games, the girls soccer team after a comeback victory, the field hockey team, and the volleyball team.
Popov, Guevara Lead Boys Soccer To Comeback Victories
The boys soccer team earned a hard fought 3-2 victory over St. Mary’s High School Saturday afternoon with all five goals in the game being scored in the second half. This was on the second game of a back-to-back after Nantucket came from behind to beat the Sandwich Blue Knights on the island 3-2 on Friday.
"The guys are exhausted. We're playing like six games in 10 days," Whaler head coach Rich Brannigan II said. "We have limited, limited personnel right now, but the guys that are playing are stepping up. The guys are digging deep through injury to keep playing. It was a great soccer game in general."
The Whaler’s 3-2 victory over the Blue Knights was a come from behind victory thanks to a pair of goals by Stoyan Popov, a goal by Anderson Diaz, and a pair of assists from Aldo Lemus. Popov got the scoring going less than five minutes into the game, but Sandwich bounced back to score the games next two goals to make it 2-1 at halftime.
The Whalers controlled the second half and earned chance after chance. Popov scored the equalizer and Diaz scored the eventual game-winner. Had Nantucket been able to capitalize on some of their other chances - which included two hit crossbars - the victory could have been by more.
"Their lineup was giving us trouble because they always kept two guys high and we're only playing with three in the back right now," Brannigan said on Friday. "So they're keeping pretty much somebody on Denzel (Tejada) in the center, so that takes him out of the game as like giving us depth and support. So we addressed that at halftime by moving Raakin (Brannigan) to be further back to sort of be in that zone and let Denzel give a little more depth, and I think that helped initially. But we played with the right energy and the right kind of mentality in the second half, which is the way we played at Abington for 80 minutes, but we didn't do it today except for about 60 minutes. There was only really 20 bad minutes of the first half, maybe 25 minutes.”
In their matchup against St. Mary’s, Calvin Guevara scored two goals for Nantucket to tie the game 2-2, and then in extra time it was freshman Raakin Brannigan scoring the game-winner in whacky fashion after his throw-in was headed into the St. Mary’s net by an opposing player for an own goal, which was credited to Brannigan. The Whalers have now won five straight games.
"I mean they're a good team. They're a state powerhouse," Brannigan said of St. Mary’s. "Consistent state final appearances. Consistent winning of the state tournament. They're a program that has pedigree. Their players are fabulous players. All of them are good soccer players. We were a better soccer team. We believed in ourselves. We believed in the process and like we preach, you got to play to the last whistle. Obviously, we did that today. We've done that these last five games really. There are obviously things we still have to work on. We're not perfect by any means. Nobody's perfect.”
The Whalers are now 6-3 this season and they will try to improve their win streak to six games when they travel to Falmouth to play the Clippers on Tuesday, September 30th. You can view more photos from Friday's game here and Saturday's game here.
Shorthanded Girls Soccer Team Beats St. Mary’s
The girls soccer team also welcomed St. Mary’s High School to the island on Saturday and found themselves in a scoreless tie at halftime as well. After St. Mary’s took a 1-0 lead with 28:50 remaining in the game, Harper LeBrecht scored the equalizer with 13:49 to go in the half, followed by Emma Woodbury scoring the game-winner in extra time to help the Whalers secure the victory despite being down four core starters and several players under the weather.
"We started the game a little rocky," Whaler head coach Doug LeBrecht admitted. "I told them it's not how hard you can get hit, keep going. Don't worry about the crowd, don't worry about the other team, and they showed that today. We had five missing seniors, four starters. We brought JV (players) up. Big adjustment was with Harper (at the top).”
LeBrecht said while the first half was sloppy, he felt his team began playing with much more speed in the second half.
"I couldn't be more proud,” LeBrecht said. "Madden (Myers) played out of her mind today, especially those last three minutes with corner kicks, and it was so scary, but we are psyched. We are super psyched we could come back, especially after (Friday, 2-0 loss to Sandwich on the road), and to move up and beat the 18th team in our division is awesome. They should be really, really proud of themselves.”
Nantucket is now 4-4-2 this season and they will try to earn their fifth win of the year when they host Falmouth High School on Tuesday, September 30th at 3:30 p.m. You can view more photos from this game here.
Harimon’s Third Shutout Helps Field Hockey Beat West Bridgewater
The field hockey team hosted the West Bridgewater High School Wildcats on Saturday – hoping to bounce back following their 2-1 road loss to Dennis-Yarmouth on Friday.
After Carley Ray scored a goal early in the first quarter to give the Whalers a 1-0 lead, they locked down the Wildcats to preserve the one goal victory. It was goalie Shelbi Harimon’s third shutout of the season.
"We won so that's nice," head coach Dan Weber said. "I don't think we played our best today. It's nice to win when you don't play your best, so that's always good. I think that we left some goals out there for sure. But, you know, we won. So the results good, but I try not to be too results based, though. I don't think I'm saying anything crazy, and all girls will tell you that we probably could have played a little bit better today, but we won, and that's good.
“West Bridgewater certainly did some stuff that was frustrating us," Weber continued. "I think they played really good defense in the circle, and they packed it up. We had looks, but we were having trouble getting really good looks. They played really good corner defense. I know we scored off one corner, but the rest of our corners, I think they were just giving us a little bit of trouble. So we'll get back at it. But you know, a win is a win. Carley Ray scored the goal off an assist from Sadie Paterson. It was a really nice play. I thought Shelbi (Harimon) was strong. She's been good all year. I don't think that that was our A-performance I would say, but when you don't have your A-performance and you still win, that's always a good thing. We got a busy week next week, so we'll try to get back to that because we're going to be busy.”
The Whalers will be back in action on Wednesday, October 1st at home against the Sturgis East Storm at 4:30 p.m. It will be the first game of a three games in three days stretch that includes a road game at Barnstable on Thursday and a road game against West Bridgewater on Friday. You can view more photos from this game here.
Volleyball Loses To Abington
The volleyball team hosted Abington High School and lost 3-1 Saturday morning. The first two sets were evenly matched with the Green Wave winning the first set 25-23 and Nantucket answering back to win set two 25-23. The final two sets however leaned Abington, with the Green Wave winning set three 25-17 and set four 25-15.
Whaler head coach Makaila Lyons said after the game that the drive is there and that she felt her team played better against Abington on Saturday compared to how they played on the road against the Green Wave a week ago in their 3-1 loss in Abington.
“That’s how I’m measuring the success of today’s game,” Lyons said. “The receive errors were much less today too according to the stats which means the work we’ve been doing is paying off. I’d like to shout out Emanuelly Coelho because her sets were much better today and she is working really hard to improve and be the setter she needs to be for our hitters. I’d also like to shout out Julie Pires again for putting her all out on the floor like she does every game and today was no different.”
Nantucket is now 1-6 this season and they will try to get back into the win column on Monday, September 29th at home against the Monomoy Sharks at 3:30 p.m.
SCHEDULE AHEAD:
Monday, September 29th:
The volleyball team will be at home playing Monomoy at 3:30 p.m.
The golf team will be on the road playing Dennis-Yarmouth at 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, September 30th:
The girls soccer team will host the Falmouth at 3:30 p.m.
The golf team will host Sturgis East at 3:30 p.m.
The boys soccer team will be on the road playing Falmouth at 3:30 p.m.
The cross country team will be at home facing Sturgis East in a meet at 4 p.m.
For more Whaler sports coverage, photos, and updates, follow the Current Sports Instagram page here.