St. John’s boys soccer team edges Catholic Memorial

DANVERS – Most public high schools play a large number of league games and a few non-league games against selected opponents.The Catholic Conference – of which St. John’s Prep is a member – has only five schools, all of the large (nearing 1,000 students) institutions.The Eagles have only eight league games and must pick up 10 non-leaguers. Most public high schools do not want to play them. They must travel across the state to find teams to play and they even travel out of state to find opponents.As a result, The Prep, going into Wednesday’s game with CM has a record of 2-4-2.Make that 3-4-3 after Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Catholic Memorial.Prep coach Dave Crowell has had nothing but league champions since he came to The Prep from Lynnfield High.When asked about the team’s record he answered the question in a short sentence: “last year we graduated 15 seniors, including all 11 starters. We returned five varsity players and the rest are all up from the (junior varsity). With the competition that we play, it has become a baptism of fire.”Going into the game, the Eagles hadn’t won a league game (0-2-1) and “we needed a league win if we want to make the states.”When you play so many non-league games, and then you have a league game, it makes it that much more important.”If you have never seen The Prep play, you would be in for a great experience. There is no high school in the area whose players have the soccer skills and team speed that this team has. When the Eagles go to their bench, there is no drop off in the skill level.CM is almost as good. Both teams play a bruising physical game that you usually see on the college level. The ball moves from end to end so fast that you can hardly keep up with it.Prep defenders, led by senior captain Owen Fox at sweeper, are outstanding. He is joined in the defense by sophomore Jim O’Leary, junior Gregory Tremblay and junior Jake Donovan with junior Stephen Pasinski in the net. They shut down a very potent offense to record the shutout.The score at the half was 0-0.The second half started with the Prep putting more pressure on the CM defenders, trying to force them into a mistake that would result in a goal for St John’s.The lone goal came on a misplay by the CM keeper, junior co-captain Connor Askins. In the 52nd minute, a Prep player was fouled about 35 yards from the CM net. Because of the distance from the net, Catholic Memorial did not set up any wall and played even up on the Prep strikers. Junior midfielder, Foti Andreo took the kick and fired it at the net. The keeper was a couple of yards off his line and he jumped too soon. As he was coming down from his jump, the ball was then arriving and it sailed into the net over his head. This made the score 1-0. The Eagles then were able to hang on for the remaining 28 minutes and chalk up their first league win. Their overallRecord goes to 3-4-2 and their league record to 1-2-1″This is a tough game for us,” said CM coach John Finn. “Dave always has his kids ready for us.”uSophomore Sean Mackinson was hurt during the game, and was taken to the hospital with 1:33 to go in the game.