St. Mary’s boys soccer prevails in double OT

LYNN – The St. Mary’s boys soccer team has been on a mission this season to prove that its trip to the Division 3 North final last year was no fluke. On Monday at Manning Field, the Spartans leapt a huge hurdle in ultra dramatic fashion.Pushed into a second overtime by No. 14 Hamilton-Wenham, the third seeded Spartans got a Ralph Bertrand header with 4:38 left to earn a pulse-pounding 3-2 win and a trip to Thursday’s semifinals against either Lynnfield or Matignon.”Hamilton-Wenham is a great team and they controlled the midfield so well,” St. Mary’s coach Mike D’Agostino said. “Ralph was huge and (Mike) Russo made a great pass to him on the winner.”The Generals (9-7-2) were every bit the match for St. Mary’s (15-5) on Monday as they took the play to the hosts for most of the first 40 minutes and actually had a 1-0 lead on Charlie Serpa’s goal at the 16:30 mark.The lead easily could have been more if not for brilliance in goal from Helio Neto and Russo controlling the back line.”Helio made a couple of great saves for us,” D’Agostino said.St. Mary’s came out and began the second half with energy and emotion as Dennis Bertocchi’s shot was punched over the net by Luke Besse. Five minutes later, Bertocchi got a bit of revenge.Alexander Alleyne eluded three General defenders in the left corner of the penalty area and slipped a slick feed to Bertocchi for a quick right foot shot past Besse with 31:59 left.”Alex did what he always does in practice and made a great play in the box,” D’Agostino said.Just over 10 minutes later, Bertrand worked loose in the box and ripped a shot under the crossbar to stake his team to a 2-1 lead.That looked like it was going to be enough as the Spartan defense packed it in and stonewalled the Generals. But with seven minutes left, Serpa picked up a loose ball and slipped it past Neto despite the Spartans’ protest that he was offside on the play.”We really held our composure after that goal,” D’Agostino said.The opening minutes of the first extra session were owned by Hamilton-Wenham as the Generals twice came close to ending the dramatic affair. But D’Agostino used a well placed timeout to slow down the momentum and keep the game tied after one overtime.The second overtime began with the midfields controlling play but after a foul, the Spartans got a free kick from the 40. Russo lofted a perfect ball into the box where Bertrand outjumped a defender and flicked the ball inside the right post to start a wild celebration at midfield.”It’s huge for us to get back to the semifinals,” D’Agostino said. “We wanted to get back there to show this program is for real.”