MARBLEHEAD — Teams can’t afford to make mistakes, particularly when playing in the rain, and the Marblehead boys soccer team learned that harsh lesson Monday evening in a 3-2 loss to Austin Prep.
Even though the Marblehead Magicians lost, head coach Elmer Magana thought that his team did some things well.
“Overall I think we did a good job passing the ball (and) possessing the ball, but in our sport, there is no point of possessing the ball if you don’t score,” he said. “I wish our guys could have attacked the outside (flanks) more because the center-mids were strong, so in retrospect, I wish my guys would have just kept on attacking the sides.”
The scoring started early, with Austin Prep scoring in the third minute of the match. After the Magicians were able to get a shot on net early on, the Cougars found success with direct long balls; senior Brendan Ardito chipped the ball over the head of Marblehead’s goalkeeper, who misread the long ball and was left in no man’s land.
Austin Prep continued on the attack in the ninth minute, with Tristan Miller seeing a bolting Sam Charchaflian and launching a perfect throw that got Charchaflian in on net; from there, the senior was able to slot it home.
Miller’s throw-ins were an asset to the Cougars; he was able to jump-start the attack and get Austin Prep some scoring chances it otherwise wouldn’t have had.
Marblehead got its first real chance of the occasion in the 26th minute, but Austin Prep goalkeeper Jared Hickey made a fine stop to keep the Magicians off the scoreboard. Moments later, Marblehead’s goalkeeper Hayden Leveroni made a quality save of his own.
The second half was a much different story for Marblehead, which stepped on the gas pedal and was able to put the Cougars under pressure. Senior Brogan McGorray had his header go over the crossbar in the 50th minute and moments later Sammy Brown met the same unfortunate fate.
After the Magicians missed yet another header off a corner, junior Oliver Buckhoff booted a rocket that Hickey got his hands on, but the ball was hit too hard and found the back of the net.
The momentum swung the Magicians’ way with the score at 2-1, but seconds later Marblehead’s keeper misread a ball coming his way and senior captain Nico Fanuele got his name on the scoresheet to again give Austin Prep a two-goal lead with the score at 3-1.
The Magicians’ bad luck continued as Austin Prep was able to clear a surefire goal off of its goal line in the 66th minute; in the 75th minute, Brown struck a shot off the post. Brown scored a goal to make it a 3-2 game in stoppage time, but it was too late as the final whistle blew shortly after.
Austin Prep head coach Jon Keefe said that he was pleased with how his side performed against the Magicians.
“That’s a very good team that we played,” he said. “They are very athletic and they are well coached. We were lucky that we were able to finish in some spots today.”
Marblehead fell to 4-3-1 and has another home matchup against Danvers Tuesday (4).
