St. Mary’s boys soccer can’t survive shootout

LYNN – It will be an off-season full of “what ifs” for the St. Mary?s boys soccer team, which dominated two overtime periods before No.10 Manchester-Essex prevailed, 5-4, on penalty kicks in Sunday?s Div.4 North Final at Manning Field … winning the game by a 3-2 score.Regulation time ended in a 2-2 draw before two, 10-minute overtime sessions saw the top-seeded Spartans put five of its 10 shot attempts on Hornets goalkeeper, Marco Kaper.?We had our chances to end things in the overtime, but (M-E keeper) Kaper (18 saves) played very well,” said Coach Mike D?Agostino.After St. Mary?s senior, Christian Chavez, missed over the cross-bar to begin things, Manchester-Essex succeeded on each of its penalty kicks, including the game-winner off the foot of Liam Crossen.?Manchester was definitely looking to get into PK?s for an advantage which was a smart move,” said D?Agostino.Parker Edington, George Lantz, Lucas Firme and Winston Feuerback tallied for the visitors while the Spartans hung close on goals from seniors Patrick Morin-Plante, Noah Camelo and Zach Stueve as well as junior Kevin Esper.The six seniors on this year?s team, which, beyond the aforementioned quartet, also included Philip Hatchouel, Maroof Barry and keeper Erik Whitcomb, were “awesome,” said D?Agostino. Whitcomb finished with three saves in regulation.?Each of them got on the field tonight and stepped up when we needed them to. They?re all great kids and they gave their hearts to this season.”Trailing 2-1 late in regulation, Chavez netted the equalizer in the 32nd minute, chest-bumping home a rebound created by a shot from Camelo.?We needed a couple of spurts in the last 10-15 minutes of the second half to get back in the game,” said D?Agostino whose team fell behind 2-1 early in the period after a laser from Edington off a 40-yard free kick.St. Mary?s needed just 2:23 to open the scoring in the first half, a span that ended when Camelo banged in a close shot through traffic, assisted by Stueve.The hosts would try in vain to increase its lead, but Kaper was up to the task with a diving save on eighth-grader Olushola George at in the 14th minute, just 50 seconds after an athletic header from Camelo missed just over the crossbar.?For the first 20 minutes of the opening half, we played well,” said D?Agostino. “We started to get a little bit fatigued and it gave them a chance to come back.”A Spartans timeout at the 18:53 mark gave way to the equalizer. Edington started an electrifying sequence with a downfield pass to Firme who settled a bouncing ball before shaking away from two defenders and burying a shot past an aggressive Whitcomb.?He?s a great player, the best they have along with Kaper,” said D?Agostino of Firme who proved a constant threat. “He scored a great goal; we probably should have played him tighter early on.”D?Agostino sang his praises for Whitcomb as well.?Even in the penalty kicks, he was guessing most of the right sides but the balls were just sneaking by him. He did everything I could have asked of him and for a kid that had never played net before, what he did this season was incredible.”