Soccer juggernaut ends Bulldogs’ season
By Jay Turner
Senior captain Sammy Papakonstantino provided a spark for the Bulldogs after returning from injury. (Mike Barruci photo)
Last week’s two-game postseason run for the CHS boys soccer team was a study in contrasts as the Bulldogs followed up a convincing win against No. 16 Bristol-Plymouth with an equally convincing defeat against the top-seeded, undefeated, and seemingly invincible Nauset Warriors.
With the win and the loss, Canton ends its season just over .500 at 8-7-5 overall. Nauset, meanwhile, improved to 19-0 and has still yet to be scored on this season after blanking the Bulldogs 5-0 in Eastham on Sunday.
“I don’t throw around compliments easily, but I’ve been coaching in high school at the varsity level for 24 years and that’s the best high school soccer team I’ve ever seen,” said head coach Danny Erickson. “So I don’t think we have anything to hang our heads about.”
Noting that it was “surreal” to hear the announcer congratulate the Warriors for scoring their 100th goal of the season — while allowing exactly zero — Erickson said he tried some tactics that were designed to slow Nauset down, but they were still “fairly flawless on the day.”
“Our boys played hard and fought well, but we were outmatched,” said Erickson. “It’s unfortunate that we met them so early in the tournament, but we had a great group this year and we really took a huge step forward.”
Erickson also did not want Sunday’s loss to completely overshadow their preliminary round win from a few days earlier — a 4-1 rout of Bristol-Plymouth last Friday that showed what this Canton squad was capable of.
Saddled with a road game after losing a coin flip, the 17th-seeded Bulldogs were nonetheless confident heading into the matchup and they proved to be the far superior team, scoring four unanswered goals to run away with the victory.
Junior captain Jake Verille led the way with a pair of goals — one to tie the game and the other to give Canton the lead for good. The Bulldogs would later add to their lead with second-half goals by senior captain Sammy Papakonstantino and sophomore Paul Corcoran, with an assist going to Simon Cruz. Erickson also credited senior captain Ben Waterhouse as the “player of the game” for his efforts in controlling the midfield for the Bulldogs.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=34768
Posted by Jay Turner
on Nov 12 2016. Filed under High School, Sports.
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