Prep soccer reaches North final

LYNN – Very often, soccer?s not a game given to statistics. Goals are set up, in many instances, by players who don?t even make it on the stat sheet.Such is the case with St. John?s Prep?s 1-0 double-overtime win over Madison Park Thursday at Manning Field.Neither team did much of anything for 56 minutes. In fact, going into the second overtime, both teams had two shots apiece. Yet, the war of attrition was on.?We subbed a lot and they didn?t sub at all,” said St. John?s Prep coach Dave Crowell, who used his team?s depth to its full advantage, “and I think that played a big part.”So did one of the oldest axioms in sports … one that you usually see in hockey. It?s when one team misses a golden chance and the other team comes right back down and scores.?Yeah,” said Crowell, “you do see that a lot … especially in hockey.”It certainly happened here. Madison Park, which really didn?t mount a significant chance for the entire regulation, seemed content to ride it out and wait for penalty kicks. But in the course of 30 seconds, Madison Park?s Stephan Dias had two cracks at it. On the first, Zach Rowell made a play on it and on the second, the rebound off a very good Rowell save same right to him, and he shot it wide.Enter St. John?s Paul Magazzu, striker/midfielder, who is a junior. Magazzu dribbled down the right sideline and got it into the football end zone, where he made a perfect cross to Greg French.French was not able to get much on the shot, and the ball bounced around before squirting out to Tom Erickson. The junior defender/midfielder “kicked it as hard as I could,” and it was hard enough to get past Madison Park?s Joao Rosa for the game-winner.?He kicked it with confidence,” said Crowell. “He didn?t get cheated on it, that?s for sure.”The goal came with 3:31 left in the second overtime, and by then, Erickson figured, the Madison Park players had to be pretty tired.?We subbed a lot, so I think we were fresher,” he said. “I hope they were more tired than we were.”The third-seeded Eagles will play in the Division 1 North final Saturday (2) at Manning Field, again against Somerville. The Highlanders eliminated The Prep in the North final last year, and then fell to Needham in the state semifinal.Erickson is looking forward to another crack at the Highlanders.?It was a great game last year,” he said of the 1-0 defeat last year.?They?re a different team and we?re a different team,” Crowell said. “So who knows?”