PEABODY — Kyle Joyce didn’t waste any time in the opening game of the season Friday, scoring four goals to help lift the Peabody boys soccer team to a 7-0 win over Northeastern Conference foe Salem at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School.
“We played well and it was a great way to start off the season,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “We moved the ball well, our defense played well and it was an all-around solid game.”
In addition to Joyce’s four goals, Victor Maciel had two goals and one assist and Pedro Vieira scored one goal. Michael Balke and Kyle Lobao each had one assist in the win, while goalie Joey Swanton earned the shutout in net.
“Kyle had a big game and he’s a great player,” said McKeen. “We actually changed up our formation to a 4-5-1 to leave him up front alone because he moves so well and he’s such a smart player. Then you add guys like Victor, Pedro and Ramon (Falcao), and we’ve got a really solid middle of the field.”
The Tanners came out and scored right away, getting a goal from Joyce on a rebound less than two minutes into the game. Joyce scored again about 10 minutes later to make it 2-0 Peabody, and he scored his hat trick goal just before the half to give the Tanners a 3-0 advantage at the break.
Joyce started the second half in similar fashion, scoring just three minutes into the third quarter to push the lead to 4-0. Maciel added his first goal of the game a few minutes later, then Vieira scored to effectively put the game out of reach. Maciel rounded out the scoring with a goal at the start of the fourth quarter.
One thing that was apparent as the Tanners took the field for their first game was the team’s discipline in terms of the new safety modifications put into place this year because of COVID-19.
“We’ve been working a lot on making sure we abide by the new rules in practice,” said McKeen. “We still saw a couple of mistakes out there with guys not thinking, but on the whole I think the guys are doing a good job out there so far. It’s tough for a lot of these guys because at this point in their lives it’s mostly instincts out there, but we’ve done a good job working around it to this point.”
The Tanners are also employing a first-year goalkeeper this year in Swanton, a football player who hasn’t played soccer since his freshman year. With inexperience in the net, McKeen knows he will have to lean on the strength of his team’s defense a little more.
“We lost all of our goalies to graduation, so we actually have one goalie on the team this year,” said McKeen. “I’ve got seven defenders back there, and they’re interchangeable back there. We’re really going to be depending on those guys, especially (captain) Nick (Sablone) because he’s a big communicator on the back end.”
Peabody (1-0) is back in action Tuesday afternoon (4) on the road at Swampscott.
“It was a great start to the season and hopefully we can continue to improve and ride this momentum as we keep moving forward,” said McKeen.
