Peabody boys soccer fends off Rams

LYNN – Peabody boys soccer coach Stan McKeen knew coming into Monday night’s game against Classical that keeping the Rams’ sharpshooting duo of Miguel Castro and Carlos Cifuentes from doing too much damage would be the key in coming away with a win.Although Castro did manage to find the back of the net once, late in the game, the Tanner defense bent but it didn’t break in a 3-2 win at Manning Field.”Castro and Cifuentes are their two key players,” McKeen said. “We felt we had to do a good job marking them. I thought we did a great job defensively all around. We moved the ball well and had our opportunities, although I thought we could have scored a few more.”Although it wasn’t the result he wanted, Classical coach Joe Skahan came out of the game encouraged by how much his team has improved since last season, when the Tanners took it to the Rams twice, once by a score of 7-1 and once by a score of 8-1.”This is a team that has dominated us in years past, and we gave them a good game,” Skahan said. “We just had trouble finding the back of the net.”Peabody (3-0) drew first blood, scoring 9:30 minutes in on a Kyle McGlone goal from Matt Rodgers. The lead didn’t last too long. Classical’s Abdoulaye Bah scored off a pass from Cifuentes to even things up, and at the half, the game was tied, 1-1.The Rams, after starting out a bit sluggish, hung right with Peabody through most of the first half, but the momentum took a noticeable shift about 15 minutes into the second half when Dominic Mondi scored from McGlone. Peabody bumped the lead up to 3-1 on a goal off an indirect kick from Hysen Qosha with 13 minutes remaining. It looked like the Tanners had this one safely in the win column and for the next eight or nine minutes, they controlled play. The Rams made things interesting when, with under two minutes remaining, Castro scored on an indirect kick with Cifuentes getting the assist. The Rams couldn’t come up with the equalizer before time ran out.Despite the fiery finish, McKeen was happy with the way his team played, and, in particular, the efforts of Greg Noonan and Keith Walsh, who had the tough task of keeping Castro under wraps.”We contained him,” McKeen said. “He can do so many things with the ball.”Skahan said he was happy with his team’s play in the first half, but thought the Rams didn’t come out as strong after the break and that was something that needs to be improved upon.”They know we’re a force to be reckoned with, and that’s a good feeling,” Skahan said.Classical is 3-1-1 with English on tap for Wednesday.