McCann Tech Drops Season Finale to Westfield Tech
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- With a very young squad that featured just one senior on the roster, the approach this fall for the McCann Tech boys soccer team was one of rebuilding and refining for the years ahead.
Tuesday afternoon, the club honored senior Brandon Vallone prior to his final career high school match, and then his teammates truly honored him in the gritty and physical performance they displayed in a 4-0 defeat to the powerful Westfield Tech Tigers.
The Tigers improved to 18-1 and are favorites to win their playoff championship on Wednesday, but the Hornets (3-14-1) refused to roll over for them. McCann was aggressive and did not shy away from contact, playing fearlessly and with nothing to lose. It was exactly the style of play that Vallone has always known of his Hornets team, and the lone player who will not be back with the group next year can only hope that his teammates build off that for the future.
“Being the only senior, it was kind of difficult because you have to make up for all the leadership,” Vallone admitted. “A lot of these kids come in from House League and they do not fully understand how the high school game works. It is a lot more physical, so you have to shape them when they are young. So that was my goal was to get this team to start playing physical. Ever since I was a freshman we never shied away from that, but this team was not doing that. It was just about working hard and putting in the time at practice.”
Tuesday afternoon the Hornets embodied that full-contact approach to give the vaunted Tigers everything they could handle. Every ball in the air was contested and there were few clean looks on their net. Several players rotated positions and head coach John Bresett routinely worked in all of the roster, which helped keep fresh legs that matched the Tigers’ aggressive brand of soccer.
Westfield controlled the ball for much of the afternoon. The Hornets managed only four shots on goal, and none in the second half of play. This meant a lot of work for the defense and junior goalkeeper Andrew Levesque.
The Tigers took 29 shots on goal, but Levesque responded with 13 saves to help neutralize that barrage. Westfield finally cracked through and got on the scoreboard when Ruvin Vdarichenko scored off a corner kick with 10:16 remaining in the first half.
“They have a really good offense, and I’m pretty sure they are ranked number one in our conference. So they are a good team,” Levesque noted of Tuesday’s opponent. “We knew that they were going to have a lot of shots on goal and my aim was just to stop them as much as I can. Our defense really held up in the first half, but it kind of fell apart in the second half.”
The ball found the back of the net a few more times to open things up for Westfield Tech in the second half. With 26 minutes, 15 seconds left in the contest, Emil Sevastyanov broke free in front of the net for the second score of the day, Raven Carresquillo followed with a goal at 15:36 and Josh Bush sent one through next off a great assist pass from Kirill Ohkrimenko at the 13:00 mark to close out the scoring.
Perhaps the most impressive part for the Hornets came in how the players responded after each goal. The hustle and effort never diminished as the team played through the final whistle, regardless of the score.
With much to build on, several others stood out on Tuesday. Omar Uqdah showed great versatility in playing both offense and defense with equal success, Vallone, Carter Foucher and Brody Patenaude helped control the middle of the field and Matt Bailey was instrumental on the defensive side of the field. Communication was strong, if not always effective.
“We have a very young team this year, and next year we will still only have two seniors, so we’ll still be strong but young, and we should be a really good team next year,” Levesque said. “There are still some things we can work on, being a young team, and I’m just hoping that we can build on that and win for the future.”
Things look bright for the seasons ahead, and certainly the Hornets will only develop an even grittier and aggressive attack as many of the younger players grow into veterans. It is a hungry group that is not happy with losing, and that should provide plenty of motivation for the 2019 season and beyond.
“I expect that with this team,” Vallone said. “They’ve got amazing pieces, which they showed this season. They have got to grow, but they will. If they can come back and start running through teams I will feel like my mentorship wasn’t a waste. I feel like this season was a success, because this was a building season. I wasn’t expecting to win this season. We won three, which was more than I expected. But there is a lot more for this team in store.”