Sports Roundup: Boys Soccer, Field Hockey Win Home Matchups
David Creed •
This Whaler sports roundup includes an update on the boys soccer team following a shutout victory over a Cape & Island rival, the field hockey team following their first win of the season, the gold team following a road victory, and the volleyball and girls soccer teams following road matches on Wednesday.
Lemus, Brannigan Lead Boys Soccer Past Nauset
The boys soccer team played their home opener Wednesday afternoon and beat the Nauset Warriors 3-0 to improve to 3-1 this season. The Whaler’s defensive performance was impressive while Stoyan Popov, Aldo Lemus, Raakin Brannigan, and Calvin Guevara continue to impress up front and lead the way as their offense establishes itself as a deep, balanced attack.
"It's nice to keep a zero on the other side of that board," Whaler head coach Rich Brannigan II said. "That means a lot. The win means a lot. Putting three on Nauset is great. I liked our team's reaction. We had a quiet, mellow first half. There were times where it just didn't feel like it was clicking. This was our fourth game of the season and we're basically on our fourth different lineup conglomeration of player type of thing. We're still really still trying to find out what works, what fits. With the personnel we have, can someone make this happen, can someone handle this job or this responsibility? We were doing a little bit of that today. It's the first day we played with three in the back, which is a big kind of change. We had been playing with four in the back. I was pretty happy with how it looked. One of the reasons we wanted to do that was to get some support up to Stoyan. He works so hard. A lot of times he works by himself. It's very often ungrateful work or not satisfying, and I wanted to try to find a way to have other people support him.”
Brannigan said moving forward, he will be keeping an eye on how his team handles adversity and responds to mistakes made on the pitch. Through four games, the Whalers have played strong, talented programs in Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, Norwell, and Nauset. They are 3-1 and haven’t had much adversity to begin their season.
"I think the boys have high expectations of themselves and the standard to which we play, but they also have to be realistic expectations," Brannigan said. "We keep harping on nothing's perfect. Nothing is easy either. We make mistakes. Your teammates are going to make mistakes, so those things are part of the mentality that we're trying to break in and build. We have a lot of great players. We have very good players in a lot of different positions, but if things are not going our way, can we keep an even head? Can we stay calm and just deal with the difficult moments? That's something we're really trying to focus on. It's an Achilles heel of sorts.”
The Whalers will try to improve to 4-1 when they travel off island to play the Monomoy Sharks on Friday, September 18th at 4 p.m.
Second Half Surge Leads Field Hockey To First Victory
The field hockey team earned their first win of the season and are now 1-1-2 following a 3-1 victory over the Nauset Warriors Wednesday afternoon. Nauset scored an early goal, however the Whalers scored the equalizer and entered halftime tied 1-1 before a dominant second half.
"I think that across the board, I thought the energy was really good," Whaler head coach Dan Weber said. "Evie (Phelps) as one of the captains does a really good job of leading with that energy and showing that energy on the field. I think everybody was really good. She might have been the one that kind of led the way, but everybody did a really good job following and I thought that that certainly played a large part in what was a little bit of a comeback win there.”
Phelps, a senior captain, had multiple high-quality scoring chances in the third quarter and finally buried an opportunity early in the fourth quarter to put Nantucket up 2-1 with what was ultimately the game-winning goal. Weber credited his team’s aggressive style following the go-ahead goal, which led to an insurance goal to seal the win.
"We've talked about that for years now, and I think they know in that situation, the best defense is getting the ball down the other end of the field,” Weber said. “It sounds a little cliche, but the best defense is a good offense in that situation. If we can get the ball 100 yards away from our net, maintaining possession away from our net is the best way to keep the ball out of our own net. I thought we did a great job. I definitely didn't want to see them sit back there, and they didn't, which was good.”
Weber said from the first game of the season to now, he believes his team has shown steady progression and gradually improved their play – which is expected given the youth movement taking place at the varsity level. He said the growth has been both in their physical play as well as their mental play and is confident in their ability to compete with anyone they come across.
Nantucket, now 1-1-2, will try to win their second game of the season on Monday, September 21st at home against the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins at 4 p.m.
You can view more photos from boys soccer and field hockey on Wednesday here.
In other Whaler sports news from Wednesday and Thursday, the golf team beat Dennis-Yarmouth on the road 268-271. Nantucket is now 3-2 this season. The scores for the Whaler's top six golfers are below.
Hunter Bistany: 42
Edward Tavares: 43
Alex Horton: 44
Lucien Silva: 45
Paxton Fitch: 46
Emil Ivanov: 48
The volleyball team and girls soccer team lost their matchups on the road. Volleyball lost 3-0 to the Sandwich Blue Knights while the girls soccer team lost 3-0 to the Nauset Warriors. Volleyball is now 1-2 this season while girls soccer is 0-3.
SCHEDULE AHEAD:
Friday, September 18th:
The volleyball team will be at home playing Muniz Academy at 3:30 p.m.
The girls soccer team will be at home playing Monomoy at 4 p.m.
The boys soccer team will be on the road playing Monomoy at 4 p.m.
Saturday, September 19th:
The football team will be on the road playing Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational/Technical High School at 1 p.m.
Sunday, September 20th:
There are no games scheduled for this date.