Peabody boys eke out soccer win over English

LYNN – The Peabody boys soccer team keeps inching their way closer to the NEC North division title.Last night, the Tanners did it by beating English, 1-0, in a hard-fought game at Manning Field. Peabody, with the win, is now 11-1-2 in the NEC/North for 24 points. Classical with a win over Salem moves to 10-3-1 for 21 points with two games remaining.Click here to see a photo gallery from yesterday’s Peabody at English soccer game.”It wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “English played very well and almost tied it at the end.””We gave them a great game,” English coach Kerry King said. “I am proud of the way our kids played tonight. We now have to get ready for Beverly on Thursday and Classical next Monday night.”McKeen, the 13 year veteran coach, said prior to the game he was worried about English striker Mubarak Nyang.”He has all the moves and an extremely hard shot that he will take from any where in the box,” he said.King, on the other hand, was worried that Peabody would come out flying after Salem handed the Tanners their only loss of the season thus far.”They will come out flying and will try to make up for the loss,” he said.English, which played after finding out that Classical beat Salem, plays the Rams Monday night.”I believe,” said King, “this is the first time in six or seven years that we both made the States.”As usually happens when both teams are defensively oriented, there was almost no scoring.Peabdoy keeper Jason Ryan, who started the night as the No. 1 keeper in the league, lowered his GAA below 1.00 with the shutout. Daniel Cordoba in the English net was every bit as Ryan, with a few more saves to boot.Peabody, ranked third in the Division 1 rankings, was relentless. The team kept attacking and put a great amount of pressure on the Bulldogs defenders. Only the outstanding work by the four English defenders kept the Tanners off the board. Eric Bransfield, Huber Robles, Ashani Nelson and sweeper Alex Alverez came up big, time after time in the first half to keep the Tanners off the scoreboard.One move that McKeen used against English was to play senior defender, Gregory Doonan, man-to-man with Nyang, while the rest of the Peabody defenders played their usual zone defense. This made it difficult for English to get the ball to their “go-to guy.”The first half was scoreless and both coaches used the halftime to make some adjustments.The second half was played at the same pace as the first. Both teams were going all out, knowing that one goal would be the difference. That goal came at the 52-minute mark. Peabody senior midfielder, Hysen Qoshja picked up a loose ball in the top right corner of the area and shot itThe ball was blocked by an English defender and the ball came right back to him. His second shot found the low left corner just inside the post.English then moved players up to increase the attack but the Peabody defenders and keeper were up to the task.English faces Beverly Thursday.