STONEHAM — File this one as the one that got away.
The No. 13 Lynnfield High boys soccer team had the upper hand in Sunday’s night Division 3 round of 8 state tournament game won in overtime by No. 12 Stoneham, 4-3.
Leading 2-0 at the half, the Pioneers were primed for a second straight upset in the tournament following Wednesday’s 2-1 win over No. 4 Medway.
Still leading 3-2 with seven minutes to go in regulation, the Pioneers had a chance to put the game away late after sophomore Dillon Reilly was fouled in the box and awarded a penalty kick. Spartans’ keeper John Clemente denied Reilly’s initial shot only to have the rebound pop back to Reilly, who unfortunately drilled the rebound over the net.
A minute later, Stoneham’s Alen Jonuz knotted the game with a header on a corner off the foot of Arubhav Thapaliya to set the stage for overtime.
In the end, it was a bench player who stole the limelight. With less than two minutes to go in overtime, Anderson Illanes subbed in for an injured Spartan. He found a hole in the Pioneers’ back line and drilled home the game winner, securing the Elite 8 championship trophy for Stoneham and setting up a semifinal game against No. 9 Newburyport Tuesday night at Manning Field at 7 p.m.
“We were disappointed but this game cannot overshadow the great year we had,” said Pioneers’ Coach Brent Munroe. “We were fortunate to play as good a team as our team and we had a very good chance of winning. In the end, their size and strength was a factor as the game went on, particularly in the second half. I thought the field condition, meaning the non-regulation size, hurt us and took us out of our game. Both teams played a pound-it forward-and-chase-it game. That’s not the way we play. We like to play to feet so that was unfortunate.”
Lynnfield took a 1-0 lead about 12 minutes when senior captain Henry Caulfield floated a corner kick into the box to fellow senior captain Alex Gentile, who headed it into the net past Clemente.
Reilly doubled the lead to 2-0 on a penalty kick with 5:21 left in the half. He dribbled the ball through the Spartans’ back line only to be pulled down in the box. The officials’ initially allowed the play, but awarded the penalty kick after review.
Stoneham stepped up its attack the rest of the half and the momentum carried over into the second half with the Spartans scoring two goals in a one-minute span to tie the game at 2-2 with a little more than 27 minutes left in the game.
The Pioneers regained the lead on a goal from senior captain Alex Gentile with 15 minutes to go in regulation. He beat two defenders and tucked it home to make it 3-2
“That was a one-man show, he just slid it past the keeper after beating at least two guys. He had a great game,” Munroe said. “They have linked up so many times, which they did on both of our goals against Medway.”
Caulfield set up Lynnfield’s second PK attempt with a corner kick into the box, where Reilly was fouled. He stutter stepped twice, but Clemente stood his ground. Stoneham countered, moving down the field in no time flat, earning a corner kick with less than eight minutes left. A Stoneham shot clanked off the crossbar, but the rebound was corralled by Alen Jonuz, who finished a header to tie the game at 3-3.
Both teams had chances in the 10-minute overtime session with Lynnfield’s best look being a shot by Gentile. He sprung loose in the box with less than three minutes to go only to be denied by Clemente.
“He’s been amazing for us all year long,” said Spartans’ coach Jeff Kirkland. “We were playing timid but figured it out. They were pressing us high so we wanted to counterattack high and go high and that’s what happened on our first goal with Jacob (Ribaudo) and Yves (Maurer) on the free-kick goal that made it 2-2. I think we have similar styles of play. We put ourselves in a hole but told them at halftime they worked too hard to not come back and get rewarded.”
While the Pioneers’ (14-4-3) season is over, Munroe said he is looking forward to next year.
“We’ll certainly miss our seniors but we have some really strong talent coming back,” he said. “Dillon scored 22 goals as a sophomore and I’ve never had a player that year score more than 12 and he will have a great group of players around him. I think we will have the talent to compete for a state title next year and it really would be nice to finally get one.”
