Ties the order of the day in weekend soccer action
BY LINDAWILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After a rough outing last weekend, the U8 boys team #1 bounced back hosting Dartmouth, coming away with a well-earned 1-1 tie. Coach Schuyler Kuhl thought it was a "good match, especially as Nantucket came in as the scrappy underdog." Nantucket's only goal was courtesy of Thomas Murphy. Keepers Sophie Kuhl and Garrett Kelsey combined to preserve the tie. Kuhl praised the play of Simon Johnson and David McCarthy who were "outstanding on both sides of the ball" and credited the defensive play of Matty Davidson as instrumental in keeping Dartmouth out of the net. "The team was super psyched up and worked hard for every ball."

The U9 boys traveled to Dartmouth, ending up knotted at 3. In the first half, Dartmouth jumped on the board early scoring two quick goals. Nantucket was able to cut the lead in half on a Jack Sylvia goal assisted by Gus Day, to be down, 2-1, at the break. Dartmouth scored quickly in the second. Nantucket settled in and tallied two quick goals of their own from Ethan Wing, assisted by Zephyr Zimicki and Lewis Mundy-Shaw, to even it up, 3-3. There was an unusually high number of saves recorded for young teams. First half keeper Zimicki stopped 12 and second half keeper Chris Tran stopped 10. Substitute coach Rich Brannigan was impressed with the level of play. "Nantucket showed real quality play to come back from being down." He also singled out the solid defensive play of Dominic Costanzo and Timmy Earle on offense.

The U10 girls remained undefeated, taking down Seekonk, 4-2, and racking up 18 goals to five in three games. Though sluggish at first from the long bus ride, five minutes in Kate Daniels netted a deftly placed skimmer that was set up by Nora MacLellan. Seven minutes later the duo repeated with Daniels pouncing on her own rebounded shot. Midfielder Haley Kinerson was man of the match with her soft touches on the give and go, starting several drives. It took 20 minutes for Seekonk to get the first of only two shots in the first half on brick-wall keeper Kelli Molloy. Aislinn McCarthy, Mia Silverio and Emma Murphy were stalwart on defense to keep Nantucket up, 2-0, at the half.

Renee Perkins took over keeper duties for the second half against a relentless Seekonk attack. Within the first two minutes Daniels had two more opportunities. Silverio sent a forward pass from deep in Nantucket's end to Molloy then to MacLellan, who sent a perfect cross from near to far post where Daniels was poaching for the empty netter for her second hat trick of the season. Twice within the first five minutes, Seekonk's best player fired off a shot point blank at Perkins who blocked it crawling across the ground covering the ball just before it crossed the line.

Perkins had an assist when she sent a goal kick past midfield to Claire MacKay hugging the side line until just inside the box to fire the ball into the far corner and putting Nantucket on 4-0 cruise control. With Nantucket switching positions to avoid running up the score, Seekonk eventually got two past the defense and a diving Perkins.

Though the U12 boys team lost to Taunton at home, 5-2, Coach Maurice Daniels felt pleased with the way the team played. "The team knew it was going to be an ugly game but they played tightly and for most of the game, we shut Taunton down". In see-saw action, Taunton went up 1-0. Nantucket drew even when Ben Daniels sent a free kick flying over the wall from 30 yards out. Nantucket gained the lead after Tavio Goncalves sent in a long ball pass from deep in Nantucket's end from Patrick McCarthey. Taunton knotted it then took the lead with less than one minute to the break. Nantucket narrowly missed tying the game again when Jo Jo Zieff banged one off the crossbar.

Daniels praised Jackson Jelleme in particular, who had to step in off the bench to fill the void left by the absence of two key players for his first full game of the season.

The U10 boys team faced a visiting Barnstable squad for the weekend's third tie, 2-2. After Barnstable hit first, Nantucket scored when Leon Lefebvre netted off a series of setup passes from Noah Davidson, Cole Millington and Ben Zieff. Early in the first half, what would have been the winning goal was waved off as the ball seemed to cross the goal line. The referee was unable to confirm the goal as the ball was quickly covered up and pulled back by the Barnstable keeper.

In the second, Nantucket stepped it up and strung together several good passing drives, one of which resulted in the go-ahead score for Nantucket on a Ben Zieff shot. Nantucket was headed to the 2- 1 win, when a penalty kick was awarded on a handball in the box with under four minutes to play. Despite a leaping effort from keeper Carter Kuhl, the shot found the back of the net.

The U18 boys team took four boats and a taxi to get to and from the game on the Vineyard on Sunday only to lose a heartbreaker, 5-0. Playing shorthanded with nine players, the team, behind the stellar play of keeper Russell Bartlett, kept the Vineyard out of the net until only 15 minutes remained on the clock.

The momentum swung heavily in the Vineyard's favor when Bartlett, after having trapped the ball diving to the ground, was kicked in the face when a Vineyard player made a move to dislodge the ball, causing a ten minute delay while efforts were made to stop the flow of blood from Bartlett's nose. Giving new meaning to "taking one for the team," he insisted on returning to the game to finish the match. No red card was issued, with the referee reportedly stating that Bartlett had fallen on the Vineyard player's cleat, a maneuver that appeared to be difficult since Bartlett was on the ground already when he was kicked. Jasper Young rushed in to kick the ball out so no advantage was gained.

With no substitutes, Nantucket's players "finally wore out" according to Coach Marco Tarcitano. He was proud of the team. "We would have beaten them if we had been full strength. The Vineyard coach even came up to me at the half and said our team was really good."

Also seeing action at home this past weekend were the U15 boys, who lost to an overpowering Falmouth squad, 7-1, with Jose Ramirez notching Nantucket's lone goal. The U14 boys also lost to Fall River, 6-0. In a well-fought game, the U14 girls

narrowly lost to Norton, 3-0. I