Boys’ soccer team snaps historic unbeaten streak
By Jay TurnerA day after wrapping up its fourth consecutive league title with a dominant 4-0 win over Stoughton on Senior Night, the Canton High School boys’ soccer team suffered a rare loss, falling to nonleague Silver Lake Regional 3-1 on the road last Wednesday.
Junior Jimmy Kelly (Mike Barucci photo)
The defeat snapped a truly remarkable streak as the Bulldogs lost for just the second time in three seasons, not counting the playoffs. They compiled a 33-0-14 record over that stretch, including a 9-0-6 mark this season heading into their contest with the Lakers.
And yet if the streak had to end, it was appropriate that it came against an opponent like Silver Lake — a talented team in its own right that entered the game with just two losses.
“They were an exceptional team,” said head coach Danny Erickson. “They deserved to win.”
Erickson said his team actually played quite well in the loss, with the Bulldogs controlling possession for significant stretches of the game and generating several good scoring chances. They simply couldn’t finish those chances, while the Lakers made good use of theirs to take a commanding 3-0 lead.
The Bulldogs eventually broke through on a Scott Levy goal with seven minutes remaining in the game, but it was “too little, too late,” according to Erickson.
It was a completely different story the night before, however, as Canton got rolling with an early goal against Stoughton, courtesy of a Cam Huber header, and then piled on with three more goals in the second half to eliminate any chance of a comeback.
Erickson started all 11 of his seniors, and every one of them had a hand in the win, including Levy, who scored his team-leading seventh goal in the second half, and goalkeeper Colby Gavigan, who recorded his 11th shutout of the season and fourth in as many games.
“All of our seniors played very well right from the starting whistle,” said Erickson after the game. “It was nice to have them lead us to the Davenport Division championship.”
Rounding out the scoring for the Bulldogs were a couple of underclassmen: junior Matt Lennon and sophomore Eric Wong.
With the victory, Canton became co-champions of the Davenport Division along with Oliver Ames, who defeated Foxboro last week to remain even in the standings with 21 points.
The Bulldogs won the head-to-head matchup between the two squads, going 1-1-0, but they finished with one fewer league victory at 8-0-5.
“We just dropped too many ties over the course of the year,” acknowledged Erickson, whose squad also went 1-1-1 against nonleague opponents. “We’re a very good team that should have finished off a couple more of those games.”
Fortunately, Canton will get its chance for redemption later this week when the Division 2 south sectional tournament gets underway. The Bulldogs, who won the south and reached the EMass finals last season, are once again among the favorites and will likely have one of the top seeds.
The team also had one more regular season game this week – a home date with Franklin, the Kelly-Rex Division champs, in the annual Hockomock Classic. Canton, which won the inaugural cup game last season over North Attleboro, earned the right to defend its title because it owned the tiebreaker over Oliver Ames.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=9299
Posted by Jay Turner
on Nov 2 2011. Filed under High School, Sports.
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