Salem boys soccer defeats Classical 5-4

LYNN – The Lynn Classical boys opened the first game of a tripleheader at Manning Field playing host to the Salem Witches on Tuesday. Salem won 5-4. The game had an added twist as cousins were facing each other as head coaches.Mike D’Agostino led the Salem team with a record of 2-2 (1-1 NEC). The Witches lost to Peabody in the NEC and North Andover in a non-league game.D’Agostino said, “We are starting to jell in the midfield and the defenders have been getting better every game.”Joe Skahan, the first-year Classical coach, played at Classical from 1996 to 2000 for Norris Gibson. He said, “I have patterned my drill and tactics after what Coach Gibson taught us.” Last year, he was the Classical JV coach and moved up when coach Ken Norris could not continue as coach due to work conflicts. Classical has a 2-1-2 (0-1-2 NEC) record, having won the City Tourney and tied its first two league games.Coach Skahan praised his two strikers, Miguel Castro and Carlos Cifuentes. “Miguel is our top scorer with 8 goals and 5 assists in 4 games,” Skahan said. “Carlos makes our team go. By controlling midfield, he set up everyone else.”The game was less than two minutes old when Salem struck. Max Mondestin carried the ball into the left corner of the area and fed the ball across to Martin Amin, who put the ball under diving Ram keeper Marc Moise. Seven minutes later, Salem upped the score to 2-0 on a corner kick by co-captain Alejandro Alvarez right to the head of Amin, who nodded the ball to the top short side corner. This was Amin’s second goal in 9 minutes.On Classical’s next rush at the Salem goal, Castro was taken down in the area and Classical was awarded a penalty shot. He took the PK and buried the ball in the low left corner; the score was now Salem 2, Classical 1. In the 17th minute, Salem midfielders combined on a give and go through midfield and centered the ball through the area about 10 yards out from the keeper. Mike Steeves deflected the ball into the short side corner for Salem’s third goal with Edwin Demoya and Nuur Mahamed picking up the assists. Four minutes later, at the 21st minute, Salem struck again. Mondestin, probably the fastest player on the Salem team, dribbled through three defenders, went left, and buried a left-footed shot in the low right corner of the net. Halfway through the first half, the score was Salem 4, Classical 1. In the 26th minute, Amin scored the hat trick, registering his third goal of the half. Steeves put a through ball between two defenders and Amin beat them to the ball, took one dribble, and rocketed the ball into the left side of the net. This made the score Salem 5, Classical 1. One minute later, Salem keeper Mike Collins, who had been a force in the net, received a yellow card on a Classical corner kick. He had to leave the game for at least one play. D’Agostino kept him out of the game for 43 minutes. He returned with 10 minutes to go in the game. He was replaced by Jon Hammond. The half went to full time without any more damage by either team.The second half started as the first finished, with both teams making attacks into the other’s areas only to have the defenses and clear the ball back to midfield. In the next eighteen minutes, from the 53rd to the 71st minutes, Classical struck for 3 goals to make the score Salem 5, Classical 4. At the 51st minute, Cifuentes broke in on the right wing and the keeper came off the line and challenged him. His shot was about to be cleared by a defender when Rafael Rosa deflected it past the defender into the net. In the 59th minute, Castro beat the defender to a clearing pass and put it by the keeper from the top of the area. This made the score Salem 5, Classical 3. In the 71st minute, Castro scored his third goal of the game. Coming down the right wing, when he reached the top of the area, he fired a bullet over the keeper’s head into the net. D’Agostino then put Collins back into the game and he defused any more attacks.D’Agostino, after the game, not