DANVERS — Playing its third game in four days against non-conference opponent Everett Monday night at Cronin Stadium, the St. John’s Prep soccer team had its hands full and then some. But the Eagles were ready for the challenge and delivered a 1-0 win in a defensive battle with the Crimson Tide.
“It was our third game in four days, so I think that kind of showed a little bit,” Eagles coach Dave Crowell said. “But Everett was ready and our defense was solid. The defense stepped up today.”
In a game filled with missed opportunities for the Eagles, St. John’s relied on leading scorer Gabriel Najim to do what he’s done all season- score. Najim followed through with the game’s lone goal, on an assist from Ethan Ambrosh.
“I think that was Gabriel’s 10th goal. He’s our leading scorer and it was a beautiful goal,” Crowell said. “Ethan made a great unselfish play and laid it through the middle for him.”
Everett only had one shot on goal and struggled to make it through St. John’s defense.
“We were a step behind as far as our combinations,” Everett coach Oswaldo Constanga said. “When we combined from the back going into the midfield we got opportunities up top. When we were trying to skip our defense and midfield they were locking us down. We really needed to go back into the habit of going right to our defenders first and let them create chances, when we got away from that we got shut down.”
Despite the lack of an offensive attack the Crimson Tide defense held strong for much of the game, led by goaltender Fabricio Dos Santos Souza.
“When you’re playing the Prep they are going to finish all their runs,” Constanga said. “They’re going to capitalize on the simple mistakes. So we tried to play as tight as we can. We tried to give them space to play up top. We usually press teams but with the Prep we didn’t want to get spread out so we stepped back a bit and tried to keep everything as constrained as possible so that way there were less gaps.”
In the beginning of the first half the Eagles were able to create chances but their shots either missed the net or were saved by Souza. With 13:57 remaining in the half Sam Smith was awarded a penalty kick after a handball in the box against Everett. Smith ripped a low shot but Souza dove to his left for the save.
“(Souza) really stepped up,” Constanga said. “He made a huge save on that penalty kick, especially on a shot down low which is a difficult save for anybody.
“On the corners, all of the Prep’s set pieces run very smoothly, so the goalkeeper has to make sure that the defenders are where they are and coming out and defending the ball,” Constanga added. “He did a very good job today and we are proud of him.”
St. John’s found the difference maker a few minutes later. Ambrosh controlled the ball running into the box and found Najim on a perfect pass, who finished the play to give the Prep a 1-0 lead.
The Eagles held on without much trouble on defense, quickly defending several Everett corner kicks throughout the second half, to complete the 1-0 victory.
“Three games in four days takes its toll after a while but Everett is a good team,” Crowell said. “They were much better than the first time we played them. I think we are better too but both teams should be improving as the year goes on.”
Everett (6-5-3) travels to Gloucester Tuesday while the Eagles (9-2-3) visit BC High for the Catholic Conference championship Wednesday.
“We tied them here,” Crowell said of BC high. “I like our chances, it will be a good game again. We are going to have to dig really deep for that one.”
