On to the next round!
BY LINDAWILLIAMS
In what has been a storybook season so far for the Nantucket varsity boys' soccer team, another chapter was added on Sunday. After clinching a playoff berth just after halfway through the season, the 7th seeded local squad earned a bye in the first round last week and then hosted Brockton's tenth-ranked Cardinal Spellman High School.

Coach Rich Brannigan told the team before the first whistle "it will not take you long to remember what it feels like to play in a playoff game situation and get your feet back under you". Nine starters are holdovers from last year's successful team, giving Nantucket the edge. Brannigan did notice that the team was nervous before the game and tentative when the players took the field.

It was not the first time that Nantucket has met up with Cardinal Spellman, having played them as recently as 2004 when the teams split on the season. Spellman plays a very physical game to compensate for the lack of the comparable level of skill that Nantucket possesses and the difference was apparent from the start with Nantucket getting bumped around on the field.

The Whalers advanced in the state tournament with Sunday's win. Nantucket's Bryan Tarcitano, top, moves in. Caio Correa, above, found himself continually surrounded by Spellman defenders.

Nantucket learned quickly that they had to tighten up their game or risk ending their season after this game. Nevertheless, Nantucket kept the action down in the Spellman end of the field and came out firing two quick shots on goal with Yuve Montenegro scoring nine minutes into the period in a wild scuffle in front of the net. Seeming to have no avenue to the goal, Montenegro threaded the ball through two defenders and just to the left of the keeper somehow.

Spellman had a hard time getting past mid-field with the excellent defensive play of John Gray pivotal in keeping them away from keeper Russell Bartlett. Unfortunately, most of Nantucket's shots were sent wide or way over the crossbar. Brannigan attributed the overpowering of the shots to "being amped up for the game adding extra pressure on the players." Scoring opportunities were spread out among Caio Correa, Montenegro and Philipe Bazilio who kept the pressure on. Unfortunately, throughout the

game, Nantucket provided most of Spellman's offensive scoring opportunities for them off of throwins, direct and indirect kicks and corners. Otherwise, Nantucket's opponent had very little offensive fire power on their own. At about the 13 minute mark, Spellman knotted up the game as a result of a particularly frustrating incident for Nantucket. With Nantucket thinking that the referee had signaled an indirect kick from about the 30, Nantucket's "wall" did not set up and keeper Bartlett was not ready to take a direct hit. It was, in fact, a direct kick that slowly sailed over the heads of the defense and past an idle Bartlett. The players protested the call to no avail, leaving the game locked at 1-1.

Correa's reputation as the state's leading scorer must have preceded him as he constantly found himself surrounded by sometimes up to six defenders and unable to pass out of the box he was in. Correa told his team "do not count on me doing it by myself, I need help and if there are so many guys around me then you will be open." With so much attention being placed on Correa, who ended up with a yellow card after arguing about another questionable call, Montenegro was left out on the sideline alone and was able to repeatedly dodge the defense to get within scoring distance, only to have the ball go wildly over the net or past the post. Just before the end of the half Montenegro broke the tie when he spun one in from outside the box faking the keeper out who got caught diving to the right with the ball curving perfectly past the left post. The half ended with Nantucket holding onto a tenuous 2-1 lead.

Though Nantucket stepped it up in the second half, Spellman matched Nantucket two minutes in, off another offensive opportunity provided by Nantucket from just outside the box on a direct kick. The shot rose over the wall and dipped into the left corner of the net, where Bartlett was able to push it out only to have it rebound back on him again for the score.

Nantucket intensified the attacks firing off over a dozen shots for the remainder of the game with Bazilio finally connecting at about the 19th minute, capping off a six minute stretch of over seven shots on goal by Nantucket, when the constantly attacking Steven Cranston sent a textbook cross onto Correa's foot at about the six. Correa then tapped the ball forward to Bazilio who sent it in off one touch of the ball past a wrong footed keeper to go ahead for good, 3-2.

The last five minutes of the game saw a flurry of intense activity down in the Nantucket end of the field with Spellman desperately trying to tie the game up. Spellman almost succeeded with yet another direct kick provided by Nantucket from just outside the box. Nantucket fans' hearts stopped when the player sent a laser shot towards the upper part of the net and a last minute gust of wind, that had picked up in the second half, took the ball and shoved it into the crossbar hard, sending it rebounding back out past the 18. Nantucket caught up to it and cleared it down towards the other end of the field.

Nantucket went into prevent defense mode but allowed Spellman to get back down to Nantucket's end with just two minutes left with more direct and indirect kicks for the visitors. All Nantucket players were in a defensive posture making for a very crowded situation in front of the net. Spellman had one last gasp with only a few seconds left in the match, when they gained a final direct kick, just outside the box. The ball flew right at Bartlett who knocked it down and then snagged the ball as it hit the ground with a charging offense descending on him. Time mercifully ran out just after that sending Nantucket into the next round.

"We played a much better second half and we were hungrier. But we continued to keep Cardinal Spellman in the game by giving them all these opportunities." Brannigan expressed frustration. "If we had played a more clean game defensively we would have beaten them 4-0."

Nantucket next faced surprise opponent number 18 Norwell, who knocked off number 2 Sacred Heart (with the state's #2 scoring leader behind Correa, Tyler Hebert, eliminated from being a scoring threat) and providing another home game for Nantucket yesterday.

When asked about what he anticipated in the game against Norwell, Brannigan said "I think tomorrow's game will be more intense than Sunday's because the farther you go the more at stake things get." Brannigan had been scouting the next opponent by calling the Mashpee and Cape Cod Academy head coaches. Both agreed that neutralizing midfielder Colin Henry was critical. Henry had also appeared on the top ten scoring leaders' list for Eastern Massachusetts. "If we can do that we should be okay. The CCA coach told me that our strikers are skilled enough to provide alternate routes to

the goal if they surround Correa." The coach also reported that Norwell's defensive line was not that strong.

"It was not a pretty game but we won and are on to the next round." Brannigan cautioned that "it goes to show that seeding is not a good indicator of strength of a team and you have to be prepared for everything. We cannot look past this next game as anyone can beat anyone else at any given time."

Check out this week's November 6th edition of Sports Illustrated. There is an article that features Caio Correa in an interesting bio piece that includes information about his father's playing career and Correa's current desire to go to Brazil to test himself against other Brazilian players of the same age in Volta Redonda, the same program that Colin Williams, the past keeper for Nantucket, went to last winter for several months.

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