LYNN — The Classical boys soccer team made it a priority in the preseason to come out firing in the Lynn City Tournament. Tuesday evening’s 2-1 tournament win over Tech at Manning Field proved the Rams are sticking to their priorities this season.
“We went 0-1-1 in the tournament last year and that was the first time since I’ve been a coach on this team that we didn’t have a win,” Rams coach Dominick Steadman said. “I knew St. Mary’s was going to be a battle and we fought Tech to get a tie. We knew coming into it this year that we were going to have a good game right off the bat.”
For Tech, the loss starts the new season on a sour note but Tigers coach Jeremy McKeen took away a handful of positives from his team’s performance.
“My midfielders really found their groove,” McKeen said. “Christian Irias, Pedro Rivas Hernandez, Thomas Khai, one of my defenders, had an amazing game. Yese Itungano came alive, Teofilo Feliciano was great at sweeper and Edin Arreaga made some big saves. These guys are impressive, they just have to find their footing.”
Midfielder/forward Gabriel Novoa got the Rams on the board early with Classical’s first goal of the season three minutes into the game.
After the Rams claimed the 1-0 lead, both teams settled down. Both offenses moved the ball down the field and generated scoring opportunities but goalies Arreaga (Tech) and Daniel Cortes (Classical) were tough to beat in net. Arreaga and Cortes each finished the evening with seven saves.
Novoa added another goal, this time from 15 yards out, to bump Classical’s lead to 2-0 at the 25-minute mark. The score stayed at 2-0 at halftime.
“He (Novoa) drove us offensively in the first half,” Steadman said. “He could’ve had two or three more goals but Tech made some big saves. That kept this a 2-1 game.”
Tech’s resilient efforts on offense finally paid off in the 57th minute. Tigers defender Teofilo Feliciano beat Classical’s Cortes on a header for Tech’s first goal of the season.
Both teams fired shots on net throughout the remainder of the game but neither goalie gave in, much like the first half. Arreaga was stellar, doing everything he could to keep the Tigers in the game, but Tech failed to find the equalizer and fell by the 2-1 final.
“Our problem was communication on the field,” McKeen said. “We have some new guys that haven’t been at practice and it took them 60 minutes to figure it out. Classical’s a solid team. We got beat for an hour and played a solid 20 minutes but we learned a lot.”
Classical advances to Saturday night’s tournament championship game against St. Mary’s. The Spartans bounced the Rams in the opening round of last year’s tournament.
“All the guys have been wanting another crack at St. Mary’s,” Steadman said. “Even towards the end of last season, we started feeling like we were a better team than we were last year. We’ll give them a game, and that’s a big thing with our team. We don’t want to be an easy road for anybody.”
Tech will clash against English in Saturday morning’s consolation game.
