DANVERS — The St. John’s Prep soccer team is playing one of the most important stretches of its season right now, and the Eagles are well aware of it.
“These are big games for us coming up,” St. John’s coach Dave Crowell said. “We’ve already been talking about it. We need to just stay focused and get better. We can’t overlook opponents.”
The Eagles, who are in contention for a Catholic Conference title, are in the middle of a stretch of three league games. They got started on the right foot Saturday with a 6-0 win over Malden Catholic.
“The energy and the focus was there right from the beginning,” Crowell said of Saturday’s win. “A lot of guys got to start who don’t usually start. They stepped up and took advantage of the opportunity. It will make it harder for me going down the road deciding who to play.”
One player who made the most of his minutes was Omar Chaghouri in his first game of the season. The senior forward scored two goals in his return from injury.
“It was great to see him back out there playing good,” Crowell said. “If he can get going and keep playing hard it just adds another weapon for us going forward.”
Also adding two goals was senior captain Gabriel Najim. Zachary Vlachos and Evan Hannibal each scored one goal, while Zachary Davis and Quinton Dooley each had one assist.
The Eagles put pressure on the Lancers right from the start. Garrison Jorge fed Vlachos a nice pass just minutes into the game but Malden Catholic goalie Genero Guirludo made a nice save.
Guirludo didn’t stay comfortable for very long. Just four minutes into the game the Eagles already had four shots on goal and a few other opportunities.
Just over 10 minutes into the first half Chaghouri finally cashed in with his first goal to put St. John’s ahead 1-0.
Later in the first half, Najim broke away from a defender and ripped a shot that was initially saved but he collected his own rebound and scored to put the Eagles ahead 2-0.
Several minutes later Najim found the back of the net again, this time with help from a nice assist by Davis to stretch St. John’s lead to 3-0 before the half.
Dooley delivered a perfect strike on a corner kick early in the second half and Vlachos gathered the ball and ripped a shot to push the St. John’s lead to 4-0.
Midway through the second half Hannibal found the back of the net and Chaghouri scored his second goal in the final minutes to cap the 6-0 win.
“We’re looking long term right now,” Crowell said. “We just keep trying to get better and better. I really liked the way we were moving the ball (Saturday). We’re looking to hit that penetrating pass through the middle and we were finding a lot of those. I was happy about that.”
The Eagles (10-1-1 and 5-0-1 in CCL) have a quick turnaround with a pair of huge league games next week. St. John’s travels to Catholic Memorial Monday (10) for a make up game and then hosts BC High Wednesday (4).
“We have a chance to lock up the Catholic Conference next week,” Crowell said. “The energy has been great. We definitely want to get a high seed because the Division 1 North is just loaded. We don’t want to have to play one of the top teams in the quarterfinals away. We just have to keep winning.”
BOYS SOCCER
Salem Academy 3, St. Mary’s 2
Aidan Sullivan and Kevin Perez each scored one goal. Richie LeBrun and Joshua Chez dished one assist apiece. Matt Gallego played well in net.
Lynnfield 2, Fenwick 1
Sean Kern scored Fenwick’s lone goal on Ryan Morganstern’s assist.
GIRLS SOCCER
St. Mary’s 6, Salem Academy 0
Julia Nickolau and Kayla Demers scored two goals each. Susannah Cornell and Gaby Diaz each netted one goal.
