SAUGUS– After the Saugus boys soccer team finished the 2016 campaign winless, center-back Angelo Andrade remembered what it felt like to go through a whole season without tasting victory. Needless to say, it wasn’t a good feeling.
Fast forward to the 2017 season and Andrade, now a senior, has provided leadership for a Sachems team that’s heading to the state tournament. Saugus, 9-5-2 for the regular season, clinched a spot in states for the first time since 1998 with a 7-3 win over Cathedral on October 20.
“I didn’t really know how to feel,” Andrade, in his second season captaining Saugus, said of his reaction after clinching a berth in states. “We’ve never been close to anything like that since I’ve been on the team. It was a surreal moment but we had to stay grounded. We still had to win a few more games to clinch a better seed. Once the tournament starts, we want to see what we can do there.”
Coming into the season, Andrade felt as though Saugus had the right pieces to make noise. With a cohesive group, Andrade, in his third season on the varsity team, was confident the Sachems would earn wins.
“I knew we had a chance to compete in more games and that’s all I thought about,” Andrade said. “We have a lot more talent now. We’re a more cohesive team this year. Now we’re just looking to see how far we can take it.”
As the lone team captain for the Sachems this season, Andrade’s goal was to change the mindset among his teammates. The senior center-back wanted to establish a winning mentality that would put the team in a position to succeed on the field.
“I wanted to start changing the way that the players come into the season, the attitude that everybody carries and how they think about Saugus soccer,” Andrade said. “I wanted to start a foundation for this program and leave it on a good note, no matter what the result was.”
Sachems coach Larry Bolduc, a former Saugus soccer player himself, believes Andrade has reached his goals as team captain. In addition to bringing a winning mentality to the team, Andrade also helps keep his teammates focused on a daily basis.
“As a captain he makes sure the team is focused and is not afraid to voice his frustration,” Bolduc said. “He makes sure we aren’t playing around in games and that we mean business. He makes a coach’s job much easier in that respect. In practice and in games he has helped me out plenty. He values discipline on and off the field.”
Preparation has also been a key to Andrade’s leadership role. Whether the Sachems are facing a tough slate of games or gearing up to tweak things in practice, Andrade prioritizes preparation.
“I try to come as prepared as I can,” Andrade said. “It’s about being able to prepare my team for what we’re going to face. Each week, there’s a new challenge. It’s about keeping the team focused and moving forward. I have to point everyone in the right direction so we’re all capable of doing the best we can do.”
On the field, the Sachems have made a number of changes this season that are contributing to their success. Saugus is finally playing to its strengths, and Andrade believes that has been the key to the team’s turnaround season.
“We’re finally playing to our strengths instead of trying to be a team that we’re not,” Andrade said. “Over the past years that I’ve been on the team, we’ve placed players in positions where they don’t belong and tried strategies that don’t fit our team. This year we all realized our strengths and put them together. Now we’ve realized what we can do.”
Making the turnaround season even more meaningful for Andrade is that he’ll be able to end his high school soccer career with his first appearance in the state tournament. Reaching the postseason, Bolduc said, is an accomplishment that all four of the seniors on the team won’t soon forget.
“This means so much to the seniors that we’ve had this historic season,” Bolduc said. “Some of them had zero varsity wins before this season. Now they’ve made something meaningful of their last season, a bid in the tournament. We wouldn’t have made it without these seniors this year. They had the voices and experience to get us here. I couldn’t be more excited and proud of each of them.”
But for Andrade and the Sachems, there’s more left to accomplish.
“We’re happy to clinch to playoff spot but we don’t want to stop here,” Andrade said. “We want to see how far we can go with this thing. We want to show everybody that we deserve to be in the state tournament and we belong there.”
