Swampscott splurge sinks Saugus

SAUGUS – Both the Saugus and Swampscott boys soccer teams entered their game on Tuesday at Anna Parker Playground needing six points over the final quarter of the season to clinch a state tournament berth.View Photo GalleryThe Big Blue got into a 1-0 hole midway through the first half before exploding for four goals in six minutes late in the opening half to take a lead they never relinquished en route to a 5-3 victory over the Sachems.The win means Swampscott (6-9-0) now must claim four out of six points in its final three games to clinch a tourney spot. The Sachems, also 6-9-0, are in the same boat.”We’ve been playing very good the last couple of weeks,” Swampscott coach Erik Robinson said. “We started the season very slow but we had a lot of confidence coming into this game. The kids showed what they’re capable of when we got down 1-0. They easily could have hung their heads.”A few yards down the sideline, the Sachems were left to wonder how a half they had been controlling spun out of control so quickly.”That’s a couple of games now where we’ve scored first and then laid back and it’s bitten us,” Saugus coach Dan D’Amico said.The Big Blue, who finished the game with a 15-9 advantage for shots, had two great chances in the early going off the foot of Max Carbone but he hit the crossbar on the first and then whistled a shot just wide on a breakaway moments later.Saugus then settled down and began to tilt the play towards the Swampscott end. The pressure eventually paid off when midfielder Tony Friend made a nice pass to a breaking Guilherme Barboza, who finished off the play with 22:55 left, to give Saugus a 1-0 lead.After that, the Big Blue offense came alive.Off a scramble in front of Owen Andruchow’s goal, the ball came out to Jack Dennehy, who unleashed a 30-yard rocket to tie the game with 18:00 left in the half. Just over a minute later, Carbone fired a shot that was stopped but Mike Coffey scored on the rebound for a 2-1 lead.Swampscott was just getting warmed up though. Just over two minutes later, Carbone cut down the right wing and crossed a ball to the back post that was roofed by Nico Rusk. Two minutes later, Carbone netted his second of the game on a 2-on-1 with Dan Johnson to cap a 6-minute span that blew it open.”That six minutes really defined the game,” D’Amico said. “You have to have communication between defense and your keeper and that didn’t happen there. They also won all the 50-50 balls which made a huge difference.”Saugus needed something to restore order before halftime and they got it with 7:59 left when Aleksa Samardezic’s free kick bounced right onto Friend’s foot and he put a quick shot past Will Green to cut the gap to 4-2 at the break.The Sachems rode that momentum into the second half and cut their deficit to a goal when Barboza scored unassisted with 31:15 left.Any hopes of a comeback would come to a screeching halt four minutes later when a Swampscott player was taken down in the box, earning a penalty shot. Herlihy took the kick and buried it to make it 5-3 and put the game out of reach.