LYNN — The Classical boys soccer team knows there’s only one thing it needs as the end of the regular season looms: wins.
Needing to reach the 16-point total to clinch a spot in the state tournament, the Rams were starving for a victory when they hosted Everett at Manning Field on Thursday evening.
Instead it was the Crimson Tide who came away with a 3-0 win at Classical’s expense.
“We tied Everett the last time we played them,” Classical coach Dominick Steadman said. “We were kind of hoping to get a better outcome than we did today. Unfortunately we didn’t.”
The Rams showcased their defensive improvements on Thursday evening and received another strong game from goalie Daniel Cortes in net, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Crimson Tide. Everett held a 1-0 lead at the midway point and sealed the victory with a pair of late goals in the second half.
Scoring chances were few and distant throughout the first half. The Rams had the first good look at the net when Gabriel Novoa found a wide open Maxwell Gonzalez in front of the net. Gonzalez picked up Novoa’s pass but put too much leg on the shot and it sailed over the crossbar.
In the 11th minute, Everett cashed in on one of its few good looks of the evening. Crimson Tide junior forward Juan Meza Rojas fired a shot past Cortes for the 1-0 Everett lead. Neither team was able to get much going offensively after that and Everett’s 1-0 advantage stood firm at halftime.
“Everett did a great job defending,” Steadman said. “They’re a great team. There’s a reason why they’ve had so many good years in the (former) Greater Boston League. Their record (4-7-2) doesn’t dictate what kind of team they are.”
Down 1-0 the Rams were still within striking distance through the majority of the second half. But when Everett upped its lead to 3-0, thanks to goals scored by senior midfielders Bryan Hernandez and Luis Avenando Chalarca, the game slipped away from Classical.
“We controlled a lot of the play in the second half,” Steadman said. “We had an unfortunate bounce that went into our net, almost an own goal, and resulted in one of their goals. That kind of took a lot of wind out of our sail.”
The Rams (4-6-3) now have a big trio of matchups as the regular season winds to a close. Classical has three games left on its schedule and will need to earn five points to get into the state tournament.
“Our goal at the beginning of this week was to be at this point now,” Steadman said. “We wanted to go 2-0 or 1-1 this week, instead we’re looking at 0-1-1. We have a tough Malden team and a tough Peabody team coming next week. We were hoping to take care of business this week but it didn’t happen that way.”
The Rams will resume their chase this afternoon at Winthrop.
