Boys' soccer squad opens season with loss, tie
BY LINDAWILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Nantucket boys' soccer squad opened its fall season with back-to-back home games last weekend against two tough opponents. "Playing back-to-back is a hard way to open the season but I knew from the scrimmages that they would come together," according to coach Rich Brannigan, who has been with the team since 1998 and head coach since 2000. Of the team's 18 games, only four can be considered "local" Cape teams for the first time, with regular past opponents like Harwich, Chatham and Bourne left off the schedule.

MICHAEL GALVIN/The Independent Nantucket's Brian Tarcitano (left) vies for control of the ball with a Cardinal Spellman defender during Saturday's tight contest won by Spellman, 1-0, to spoil the Whalers' home opener.

First up last Saturday was a match against nemesis Cardinal Spellman. Nantucket clearly had the faster feet, but the Cardinals had the physical size, making the teams somewhat evenly matched. Nantucket took the action into the Spellman end of the field, controlling the ball for the first 40 minutes. Though rusty, Nantucket showed real promise, stringing together several passing runs only to come up empty. For its part, the defense managed to prevent any real quality shots on returning goal keeper and co-captain Russell Bartlett (with Jasper Young and Martin Manov), back for his last year in net, and who ended up with 12 saves on the day.

Things did not look good for Nantucket as player after player was taken off the field due to injuries as the referees let the game get out of control by not calling the overly rough play of Cardinal Spellman, allowing the opponents free reign to shove and tackle with cleats up repeatedly. One Spellman player argued with every call made against his team without a yellow card being handed out. One two-handed shove from behind resulted in a potential season ending broken wrist for starting eleventh grader Devon Kohler and a flight to Hyannis to have it set. Freshman Jose Ramirez stepped in to fill the big cleats left by Kohler for the weekend and showed real promise in his first high school game. There were so many injuries that an unusual ten minutes of stoppage time was added to the end of regulation.

The game stayed knotted at zero until the 68th minute of play when an unseen penalty was called against Nantucket, allowing a direct kick for Spellman from the 18. The ball was floated up over the wall of Nantucket players in the stiff breeze and sailed past Bartlett just under the crossbar when he mis-timed his leap to put the opponent up by one. Nantucket stepped it up and took the action into the other end, firing off shot after shot to try to get at least a tie but was turned back. Nantucket's best chance for the equalizer happened when outstanding sophomore striker Philipe Bazilio was taken down from behind in the box. Again, Nantucket was denied with a non-call by the official and no penalty kick was awarded, forcing Bazilio to take the direct kick from the 18, which unfortunately skidded wide right in the wind. Nantucket had to settle for its first loss of the season.

The JV squad also saw action after the varsity game. Nantucket was originally scheduled to play a full game against Spellman, but due to miscommunication the game was canceled two weeks before without the team being told. The JVs showed up on the field fully dressed and ready to play. To avoid disappointment, and to give the players a chance to get their feet wet, Cardinal Spellman agreed to play an 8 against 8 format for 25 minutes, using the varsity players who had not seen much field time during the previous match. Under new coach Robbie Sulzer, the young team lost 1-0 in an evenly played contest. Sulzer had been an outstanding soccer player for Nantucket on the team that reached the semi-final round of the state tournament, graduating in 2002. "I thought they looked good, they were moving the ball and winning 50/50 balls. I am excited to see how they will play as they get more comfortable on the field and with each other," he said.

On Sunday, a still tired and bruised Nantucket team faced the fresh legs of visiting Cohasset. The opponent jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, which was a wakeup call for Nantucket. Nantucket answered about ten minutes before the half when senior Carl Stevens managed to bury a ball he stole off a defender's foot in front of the goal that had been airballed into the box from sophomore Carlos Portillo. As in Saturday's game, Nantucket maintained possession for a larger percentage of the time but could not capitalize off the attacks.

Nine minutes into the second half Nantucket drew even when a series of well placed passes down the left side ended up with a ball sent to Bazilio's foot at the top of the box. Bazilio, who was swarmed all day, faked out the four defensive players hovering around him and snaked the ball out wide to waiting junior Alvaro Castro who immediately sent the ball right and past a diving keeper for the goal. The duo repeated the same play 16 minutes later to take the momentary lead at 3-2 and almost pulled it off several more times.

Nantucket started to get sluggish but kept fighting to maintain the lead. With only a few minutes left in regulation saw that lead evaporate on a questionable award of a free kick from just outside the 18 from the right side. Nantucket screened out Bartlett who never saw the ball until too late to stop the Beckham-like curve around the near post. Nantucket got its third wind during the five minutes of stoppage time and kept the pressure on the Cohasset keeper, trying to pull out the win. The final whistle blew as junior Brian Tarcitano and Bazilio were charging up the field one more time and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

Brannigan praised the strong defensive play of senior Jasper Young, junior Henry Farrell and Ramirez, who protected Bartlett, with nine saves on the day. "Bartlett was fearless in goal, coming out to challenge the Cohasset attackers. He knocked at least four off their feet to win the ball from almost certain goals." Brannigan was very pleased with the first weekend of play. "It was amazing, and well above expectations. We could have beaten either team and were not outmatched." He felt that there were still things the team could work on, such as communication on the field and staying out of each other's way. He particularly mentioned Bazilio's play. "He was showing a lot of creativity out there with Brian, Alvaro, Carl and Carlos working well together."

When asked about comparing this year's team to last year's team that went all the way to the south sectional finals in Boston behind the stellar play of Caio Correia, he refused to do that. "I cannot compare this team to last year's. Each team is different and I do not want to put pressure on them. I want to set them up for success instead." He explained that the teams were substantially different in makeup as well. "We have a ton of new players and enough for a JV team this year. We only have five seniors and lost six key players from last year." Due to the difficult schedule of opponents this year, there was no time for the standard "rebuilding" time period to get the younger players seasoned. "There are no gimme games this fall. They have to hit the turf running and be prepared." Brannigan preferred to call it a season of "readjustment."

In other action this past week, the varsity girls' team lost a tight match to perennial powerhouse Mashpee, 1- 0. Coach Jorge Rojas praised the defense and keeper sophomore Shantal Hanniford for keeping the game close. The first year JV squad lost its first match, 3-1.

The number of Nantucket soccer teams has risen from two years ago, when there was one varsity boys' team and one JV girls' team, to six competitive teams this fall. There are two CPS teams, made up of seventh and eighth grade teams with new coaches, and JV and varsity boys and girls teams at the high school. The increase in students participating in school soccer programs on the island mirrors the increased nationwide interest in soccer, with the U. S. finally getting on the bandwagon that the rest of the world has been

on for decades. I