St. Mary’s boys lose to Weston 4-1 in first round of tournament

St. Mary’s had the home field. It was senior day and a great crowd was on hand at Manning Field to watch first-round action in the boys D3 state tourney. However, the Spartans lost to Weston, 4-1. Weston advances to play Lynnfield in the quarterfinals.St. Mary’s started the day as the fourth seed with a record of 10-3-5 in the Catholic Central Large. Coach Al Jackson’s only comment was, “We don’t look ahead. We play them one game at a time.”Weston started the day as the 20th and last seed in the tourney. The Wildcats had a record of 6-11-2. The normal rule for qualification is to be a league champion or runner-up, or to win 50 percent of your points. The exception is called “The Bedford Rule,” named for the school that had it put in. If a D3 school plays in a predominantly D1 and D2 league, then only the games with other D3 schools count towards tourney qualification.Weston met the rule. Wildcats coach Renato Campobianco said, “We have played Acton-Boxborough, Lincoln-Sudbury, which is still playing in D1, and Concord-Carlisle, which is the number-one seed in D2. We have to learn how to play with the big teams.”The first ten minutes were an end-to-end track meet, with both teams making great passes and outstanding defensive plays. Both keepers, Hunt Batter of the Wildcats and Andrew Lamacchia of the Spartans, were called on to make some spectacular saves. However, the style of soccer was different. St. Mary’s was playing the long ball down the wing, then over the top into the area looking to connect with its strikers. Weston keeps the ball on the ground, and with short square passes and through balls moves the ball upfield in checkerboard fashion. Another place the teams were different was team speed. Weston’s front line, sometimes two strikers and sometimes three, confused some of the St. Mary’s defenders as well as the Spartans’ midfielders. The Weston strikers and midfielders continuously pressured the Spartan defenders to the point that St. Mary’s was making quick clearing passes without looking where the ball was going. Yesterday, it always went to a Weston player.Weston broke on top in the 27th minute, when Riley McCabe’s through pass went right to the feet of an unmarked striker, co-captain Ben Ritter. He picked up the pass in the arc and beat Spartan keeper Lamacchia to the right side. This made the score Weston 1, St. Mary’s 0.The one-goal lead lasted two minutes, when, in the 29th minute, Ben Ritter again was involved in the score. He set up fellow senior Luke Guerin in the area, and with a defender draped all over him, he beat Lamacchia to the short side from 10 yards out. This made the score Wildcats 2, Spartans 0. In the 32nd minute, Weston seemingly scored again, but the referee ruled that the Weston shooter was offside when he received the pass. So the score stayed 2-0.With under one minute remaining in the half, St. Mary’s was fouled out on the left wing about 35 yards from the goal. Senior sweeper and co-captain Chris Kefalas took the free kick and the ball managed to thread its way through 15 players and land in the top right corner. The goal was unassisted. This cut the Weston lead to 2-1. Ten seconds after the restart, the half ended.The second half was a clinic put on by the Weston strikers and midfielders. The Weston defenders would break up the Spartan attack near midfield and send speedy forwards in again on the St Mary’s keeper.In the 51st minute, Weston put the game out of reach when Guerin found sophomore Riley McCabe in the top left corner of the area, and he beat a screened Lamacchia, who did not move on the shot. This made the score 3-1, Weston. The icing on the cake for the Wildcats came in the 61st minute, when co-captain Sawyer Thompson pushed the ball ahead to Nick Burkus, who was flying down the right wing. He took a couple of dribbles and shot the ball, beating the keeper to the top far corner. This made the score 4-1 with under seventeen minutes to play. Both coaches subbed freely during th