LYNN — The KIPP Academy boys soccer team may have cruised to a 7-2 win over Collegiate Charter of Lowell in the first round of the Massachusetts Charter School Athletic Organization Tournament Tuesday but the Panthers aren’t satisfied.
“We seem to play down to our opponents a bit,” Panthers coach Jon Langlois said after Tuesday’s win at Manning Field. “Our offense did OK. We definitely have a lot of work to be done. We weren’t rolling on all cylinders like we usually are. Angel Hernandez played real well in the middle and Kevin De Leon as well. Overall I would say the offense was average (Tuesday).”
That offense was led by Marco Escobar who, despite scoring five of KIPP’s seven goals, still has some room for improvement. De Leon also added two goals in the win.
“It’s actually an average day for him,” Langlois said. “With 16 goals on the season, he puts in the work. If we could just get him to use his left foot he’d be a lot better.
“We definitely want to focus a little bit more on possession going forward on offense,” Langlois said. “These through balls aren’t going to work on these better, bigger teams. We’re going to have to keep the ball on the ground. We have to work the ball around and draw the defense forward, then beat them on a counter.”
On the back end, the defense had a solid night with Jefferson Paz in goal.
“Defensively I can’t say many bad things,” Langlois said. “We have a solid back four and again Jefferson really turns it on when he needs to. That shot they had (on the first goal) there’s nothing you can do there. The defense played well. We’re going to have to work on moving on a line more but I like the way we adapted to shutting down their best players.”
The Panthers put the pressure on early in this one, with a pair of corner kicks and a free kick coming in the first 10 minutes. But KIPP didn’t cash in until a few minutes later when Escobar controlled a through pass and scored to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the first half, Escobar broke through again with a nice move to get past a Lowell defender and scored to stretch the Panthers lead to 2-0.
With just a few minutes remaining in the first half, Lowell scored to cut the Panthers’ lead to one but KIPP answered right back. Escobar netted his third goal of the half to give the Panthers a 3-1 lead heading into the break.
Lowell had a few chances in the second half but Paz came up with a pair of huge saves on back-to-back corner kicks to keep the Panthers 2-goal lead intact.
The Panthers’ offense took over from there. A nice crossing pass landed right on the foot of De Leon and he scored his first goal to give KIPP a 4-1 lead.
Several minutes later, De Leon and Escobar each added another goal 30 seconds apart to stretch the Panthers’ lead to 6-1. Escobar scored his fifth goal two minutes later and Lowell scored on a late penalty kick to wrap up the scoring in the Panthers’ 7-2 win.
KIPP moves on to the MCSAO semifinal next Tuesday (7:15) where it will play the winner of MATCH/Excel at a neutral site in Medford.
“The week off helps and it doesn’t,” Langlois said. “At this point in the game there’s not much more you can do to prepare. It’s just making sure that these guys are getting out there moving, stretching and obviously keeping injuries to a minimum.”
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BOYS SOCCER
English 5, Saugus 1
The Bulldogs conclude the regular season at 14-0-2 and await the Division 1 North state tournament pairings.
Ryan Lima scored two goals. Chris Lazo, Bruno Cabral and Alberto Ampudia scored one goal each. Goalie Jack Mancaniello made three saves.
For Saugus, James Rodrigues scored the lone goal and goalie Jacob Goodwin made 20 saves in an outstanding performance.
The Sachems end the regular season at 5-13 and have qualified for the Division 3 North state tournament via Sullivan Rule.
Northeast 4, Tech 3
Alexis Barrios scored two goals and Brian Herrera netted one.
Tech (8-6-4) travels to Essex Tech Wednesday (4) for its regular season finale.
GIRLS SOCCER
Fenwick 1, Cardinal Spellman 0
With the victory at Spellman, the Crusaders are Catholic Central League champions. Fenwick now awaits the MIAA Division 3 North state tournament pairings.
Amesbury 3, Marblehead 0
The Magicians end the season at 7-11.
