Spring soccer underway with teams seeing early action
BY LINDAWILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Spring travel soccer for the Nantucket Student Soccer Association ("NSSA") started this past weekend with a record 11 teams, with players ranging from under 8 to under 18 years old, taking the pitch this season in the hope of getting on an early roll.

Starting in 1986 with one NSSA coed travel team, interest has exploded in recent years, reflecting a changing demographic and a move away from the attitude against soccer that spawned derogatory comments such as "commie round ball." In 1998, when former director Rich Brannigan took over the reins, there were only three travel teams. Brannigan attributes the steady growth to several factors. "More people are interested in the program and it shows the changing cultural aspects of the island." He added that soccer has become "more of a mainstream sport" and has become an accepted and successful program at all age levels.

Last fall's boys' varsity soccer team went all the way to the state finals and saw record crowds at every game. Gone are the days when only a few parents would watch. Through the NSSA program, there are now schoolsanctioned teams for boys and girls in the CPS middle school, bridging the gap between the NSSA recreation league in fall and the high school. In addition, NSSA runs a successful winter indoor program six days a week for all age levels. Girls' varsity soccer coach Jorge Rojas has always held that "soccer needs to be played yearround for players to be any good at it."

New NSSA director Wayne Davies, assisted by Rich Brannigan, who returned to NSSA after a brief step away, are amazed by the complexity of running the league. Coordinating rec leagues and the traveling teams every weekend is a huge responsibility for the two staff members. Both feel that without substantial community support NSSA could not continue to provide a positive sports environment for the hundreds of children participating at all levels in yearround programs.

Nantucket plays in the South Coast Soccer League that has 21 members with hundreds of teams. As an example, Sandwich fields over 40 teams, with six U12 teams alone. NSSA is a new program comparatively and has outgrown the limited field space available. NSSA is hoping that the CPC warrant article awarding initial funding for the proposed new fields off Nobadeer Farm Road will pass. Davies feels this is important for the future of soccer. "Our growth has completely outstripped available field space and we need to provide a quality place for our children to play. That benefits all children here and gives them a supervised, productive activity."

Weekend action

Some teams were successful this weekend and others ran into last year's champions in their first game of the season. At home, the U8 boys #2 team faced a strong Dartmouth squad. Playing in a 6 v 6 division, Nantucket fielded only five players. With no substitutions, which can wear down even experienced players, to Dartmouth's four subs, Nantucket appeared to be at a disadvantage. Nantucket rotated the goalie position, which allowed each player to "catch his breath a little," according to Coach Mark Dawson. David McCarthy had two key saves in the first half to shut out the opponent. McCarthy then switched out of the net and promptly passed the ball to Stefan Silverio who then wove his way through the defense to give Nantucket a slim lead at the half, 1-0.

"As the second half started, it was obvious our boys were getting tired," an enthusiastic Dawson said. "The rotation of our goalie position was not enough to keep Dartmouth from pushing hard onto our defense." With only a few minutes left to go, Dartmouth sent rested legs onto the field and easily took the action down in front of Nantucket's net. Delly Jones was between the posts and made two spectacular saves which resulted in an audible "wow" from the crowd on the sidelines and a win for Nantucket.

Having gone undefeated in the regular season last year, the U10 girls, coached by Linda Williams and George MacLellan, came away with a decisive, 4-1, victory at Barnstable. Renee Perkins in goal was relatively unchallenged letting only one get past her with under two minutes left in the game. Nora MacLellan scored twice, one off a beautiful fake out of the defense and Kate Daniels and Claire MacKay tallied the other two goals. According to MacLellan, "The girls really came out to play and did very well for the first game of the season. Our defense really shut them down through the entire game, stopping every attempt to get near Perkins. It was great to see their determination in the first game of the season."

Also victorious was the U12 girls team who shut out Falmouth, 4-0. At the 18 minute mark, Samantha Freed drew first blood and it was smooth sailing after that. Three minutes later, Isabella Day put Nantucket up, 2-0. Keepers Kate Freed and Taylor Kopp each wracked up over five saves as Falmouth kept the pressure on. After the half, Grace Jensen scored off a textbook cross form Sabrina Dawson. Dawson then fired one in on her own a few minutes later to put the game out of reach at 4-0. Assistant coach Louisa Crosby, along with Shelly Brannigan head coach, was pleased with the effort. "All the players gave it their all. What a way to start the season!"

U12 boys lost, 3-2, to Sandwich, a team that went to the finals of the Mass. Tournament of Champions last year. Coach Maurice Daniels was disappointed. "We should have beaten them, we were the better team. It could have gone either way in the end." However, he felt that Nantucket did very well defensively, particularly keeper Christian Lombardi with "world class saves." Daniels also singled out Chris Sylvia as the "man of the match" as a defensive mid-fielder. Nantucket found itself down, 2-0, after the break but inched back off a cross to Chris Sylvia from Tavio Goncalves. Six minutes later Sylvia returned the favor to Goncalves to even up the match at 2-2. The local squad lost on a short corner kick that curved into the top of the net at the far post untouched with under four to go. "The lack of practice as a team definitely makes it hard to get going for the next few games. Aweek and a half is just not enough."

Nantucket U 15-boys traveled to Wareham on Sunday. Assistant coach Jordi Cabre, along with Coach Steve Kohler, joked that the team "arrived at the field finding the farmer just getting the cattle off in time for us to practice." In layman's terms, the field was uneven and full of holes making it very bouncy due to the grass mounds everywhere. Despite the less than ideal field conditions, Nantucket played a strong game and was deadlocked at the half, 1-1. It was "sheer luck," according to Cabre that Wareham trumped Nantucket, 2- 1. "I say luck because Nantucket's shots on goal were much more accurate and at least three times our shots were somehow plucked out of the goal and we were denied." He had high praise for the defensive line along with Colin Kohler for keeping them in the game. The last three times these two teams have met the scores have been a total of three points. "This field gave new meaning to home field advantage!"

The U18 boys, coached by Marco Tarcitano and assisted by Jon Gray (a former Nantucket varsity player), did not fare as well, losing to a perennially strong Yarmouth-Dennis team, 3-1. Nantucket was hampered by being a man down from the start with several starters having to miss the first game and found themselves within striking distance down 1-0 at the half. After the break, Y-D added another goal to go up, 2-0. With the clock ticking down to less than five minutes, striker Philipe Bazilio accounted for Nantucket's only goal on a solid cross past the keeper. With only a few minutes left, Y-D put several players into the box in front of keeper Harry Robishaw, who did an outstanding job in his first foray into the net filling in for the absent regular keeper Russell Bartlett. Robishaw was able to deflect the first shot, get a hand on the second shot sending it wide again, only to see the ball skid back in front of him along the line for a rushing Y-D player to tap in and go up 3-1. Tarcitano was upbeat despite the loss. "I knew this was going to be a tough game. We made a few mistakes but we had chances and we got tired without any subs and down a man. We will be okay when we are all here."

Also in action this past weekend, was the U8 boys #1 team, which lost the season opener at Norton, 5-1. The

U9 boys team also started out against a strong cohesive Barnstable team, but could not get past their keeper losing 5-1. Before a home crowd, the U14 boys team, which is playing in a very rough and tough Division 1 group, lost to a big Sandwich squad who went deep into the playoffs last year. The U14 girls lost to Dartmouth, last year's state champions, by the respectable score of 4-0, with the game being much closer than the score indicated, due to the great

defensive effort by Nantucket. I