Casivant Scores Twice, Mount Everett Boys Win on Road
CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The last time the Mount Everett boys soccer team tasted defeat, it was a two-goal loss to Hoosac Valley in Sheffield.
On Monday afternoon, the Eagles won their third straight, taking a two-goal lead into the final 10 minutes and emerging with a 2-1 win over the Hurricanes.
Eagles coach Josh King said it was a question of attitude for his squad.
“I think it was just us showing up and actually playing today,” King said. “I think at times, we take teams for granted. If you beat someone earlier in the year, you think you’re going to go out and just roll over them. You can’t have that mentality.”
Monday’s win gives Mount Everett a 2-1 win in the three-game season series against the ‘Canes. The Eagles won the first meeting in Sheffield, 3-0, back in late September.
“The way Berkshire County soccer is, everyone is so competitive, so physical,” King said. “There’s no guaranteed win any day. You have to show up, you have to put your best foot forward. On Oct. 5, we didn’t show up, we didn’t play inspired. We lost, 3-1, and we kind of got ourselves back on track last week.
“It’s good that we’re getting ourselves going in the right direction.”
Nikos Casivant scored twice, and Patrick Silk earned the win in goal as Mount Everett moved to 7-3 heading into Saturday’s non-league game at Berkshire Country Day.
Hoosac Valley (4-7) dropped its second straight after losing senior Paolo Kareh to an injury.
Hurricanes coach Patrick Mahoney said he was encouraged by the way his team battled in the closing minutes to try to level the score but worried about the way it came out flat from the beginning.
“I needed a better effort out of our guys, which certainly happened in the second half,” Mahoney said. “We didn’t really play up to the level we would have liked to in the first half, and it certainly improved in the second, especially looking for the equalizer in the last 10 or so.
“I’m proud of the effort the guys put in with all of the injuries we’re dealing with. It’s frustrating.”
Aiden Maturski cut Hoosac’s deficit in half with a goal in the 71st minute that deflected off an Eagles defender and past Silk.
But despite keeping the Eagles in their end most of the final 10 minutes, the Hurricanes managed just one more shot on goal during that stretch.
Mount Everett took the lea in the eighth minute on a pretty sequence that saw Jack Carpenter give the ball to David Bautista-Cruz inside the 18. Bautista-Cruz then set up Casivant with a leading pass, and he finished to make it 1-0.
“That’s something we preach a lot: The team game is more important than the individual,” King said. “I think we have eight different scorers this year, which is good, because you never know who we’re going to get scoring from. And it’s been seniors all the way down to eighth-graders.
“It’s just one of those things where the more versatile you are, the more people have to prepare for you. If you only have one guy, they know they have to lock down that one guy. By us getting more people scoring, it makes us more dangerous.”
In the 42nd minute, Casivant made it a 2-0 game when he sent a ball into the 6-yard box from deep on the left wing, and the ball caromed off Jaydin Cooper (six saves) and into the net.
Hoosac Valley looks to snap a two-game losing skid on Wednesday when it visits Lenox.