On a day that saw the Vineyard compete in three playoff games, both the girls soccer team and the football team advanced to the next round with wins on Friday, while boys soccer ended its post season run.
Girls soccer started the afternoon with a thrilling 3-1 first-round playoff victory over Greater New Bedford RVT, and the football team sacked Falmouth for a 41-6 win under the lights at home.
Boys soccer lost 1-3 in an away game with East Bridgewater.
The girls soccer team finished the first half tied 0-0 against a tough New Bedford squad. The New Bedford Bears came out hungry in the second half after struggling to find offensive momentum in the first. Now the Vineyard’s opponents were suddenly threatening and maintaining possession in the offensive end. Vineyard keeper Delilah Oliver held her ground in net, though, and eventually the Vineyarders found their offensive rhythm.
It all started with a beautiful feed from Eleanor Mone to the foot of a flying Elana Giordano towards the net. The senior striker controlled the ball without breaking stride and went right for the score. She ripped a shot and the Greater New Bedford keeper made a great save but freshman Ava Townes was right there for the rebound and hammered it in for the score.
“For her to read that and be there, we talk about that, always crashing the net. Rebounds win games,” said Vineyard head coach Matt Malowski.
The second goal started when Vineyard winger Talia Maccaferri dusted her Greater New Bedford defender up the sideline and found Giordano on a perfectly placed pass cutting towards the net. The Vineyard captain made a quick move with the ball and beat the Bears keeper left with a grounder to push MV’s lead to two with nine minutes left to play.
“We realized that Talia was just eating on the right side so that was our game plan for the whole rest of the second half,” Coach Malowski said. “Just keep getting that ball to Talia and have Elana play the weak side and wait for Talia to play the ball through. We talked about that play at halftime and they really executed it perfectly.”
Less than four minutes later Maccaferri and Giordano linked up on a nearly identical scoring opportunity with the same result to make it 3-0 Vineyard. New Bedford answered almost immediately with a goal on a crossing pass but the Vineyard’s lead held as the final whistle blew and the girls moved on to the next round.
“I was super proud of them for executing and finding that extra gear,” Coach Malowski concluded.
Up next the team faces the number four seed in the division three tournament in Norwell on Sunday. The Clippers are 18-1-1.
For boys soccer, the season concluded in the same fashion that the many of their games have gone this year. While the Vineyard controlled possession of the ball for the majority of the contest, a few costly mistakes turned into goals for their adversaries.
“We played hard, were the better team on the field, but we didn’t have good puck luck to borrow a term from hockey,” coach John Walsh said.
The football team, however, was in total control in their home game Friday night, posting a 41-6 win against Falmouth. After such an emotionally charged battle with Nantucket last week, coach Tony Mortolla said it spoke volumes ab out his team and their maturity to play such a complete game after all the hype surrounding the Island Cup.
“To come off the game we had last week, it was such an emotional game on Nantucket. So trying to get these kids refocused for this was a testament to the coaches and a testament to the kids’ ability to refocus,” Coach Mortolla said after the game.
Guilherme Oliveira reached the end zone three times, the last of which was a 90-yard house call down the sideline that left everyone else in the dust. Kaio DeCosta also rumbled for two scores while Jordan Souza ran for a touchdown and Aiden Conley caught a touchdown and had an interception.
“To beat that team, another division five team, the way that we did is just a huge step forward for this program, it really is,” Coach Mortolla said.
It is still undecided where and who their next opponent will be but with one more week to go the 6-3 Vineyarders have the opportunity to finish the season with seven wins, something that a Vineyard football team hasn’t done in more than a decade.