Boys soccer: Swampscott clinches NEC South title

Adjusting to a new coach can take time, but the Swampscott High boys soccer team seems to being doing just fine, thank you.The Big Blue, under first-year coach Mike Chase, defeated Saugus, 4-2, Tuesday to win the Northeastern Conference South title.”I’m really excited,” Chase said about his team’s accomplishment.Saugus (2-13-1) didn’t go quietly into the night. The Sachems led 2-1 at the half on goals by Carmen Bordenaro and Albert Unga, who knocked home a penalty kick.Swampscott’s Ethan Scott scored the first two Swampscott goals, both on direct kicks from about 25 yards out that he parked just under the crossbar. Matt Gateman scored from Chris Nenshati to give the Big Blue a 3-2 lead and Kyle Taylor made it 4-2 on a penalty kick. Saugus goalie Joe Meuse had another strong game in net.”The Saugus goalie has got to be the best goalie in the conference,” Chase said.”He’s amazing. He made three or four big saves.”The Big Blue are 9-2-3 in the Northeastern Conference, 9-2-4 overall.Classical 3, Salem 2At Lynn, the Rams (11-3-2, 10-3-1) made sure the race for the Northeastern Conference North title would come down to the wire with Peabody and Salem also still alive in the hunt.Cristian Lopes headed in a ball from Abdoulaye Bah early in the first half to put Classical up 1-0 and Carlos Cifuentes made it 2-0 early in the second half (Miguel Castro assist). Salem cut the to one on a goal by Edwin DeMoya and then tied it with seven minutes remaining on a Michael Steeves’ goal.The Rams pulled this one out of the fire when Cifuentes scored with 11/2 minutes left.The Rams have a key league matchup Thursday against Peabody, which is in first with an 11-1-2 conference record.Marblehead 1, Gloucester 1At Marblehead, the Fishermen need to win their three remaining games, but the Magicians (6-6-3) had other ideas.”They put a good scare into us,” coach Steve Ingemi said. “They really took it to us in the first half.”Gloucester scored 22 minutes into the game, but the second half belonged to Marblehead. Mike Brenan came up with the equalizer when he scored on a corner kick (unassisted) with 20 minutes left.Danvers 10, Winthrop 0At Winthrop, junior Chris Ciampa had a hat trick for the Falcons, who are 7-5-3. Seniro Eddie Bates had a goal and three assists and senior Karl Bengsttron had two goals.Beverly 1, Revere 0At Beverly, the Panthers’ Ethan Trowt scored what would be the game-winner 13 minutes into the first half.Tom Curran collected his first shutout as Beverly improved to 2-11-3.