Pope Francis Storms Back Against Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Mass. – In a rematch of one of its two losses this fall, the Pittsfield boys soccer team Wednesday came out like a house afire at Kirvin Park.

 

Pope Francis was the fire extinguisher.

 

The Generals scored two goals in the first four minutes of play to stun the top-ranked Division 3 team in the commonwealth.

 

But the Cardinals answered with their first goal in the eighth minute and scored three goals in eight minutes en route to a 5-2 win in the Churchill Division showdown.

 

Five different Pope Francis players found the back of the net, and the Cards outshot the Generals by a margin of 16-7.

 

But the issue was pretty much over after Pope’s Joe Orszulak put back a rebound off keeper Connor Devine (11 saves) to give his team a 3-2 lead with 24 minutes, 25 seconds left in the first half.

 

The Cardinals’ blitz after such a promising start for Pittsfield was a game-changer to say the least.

 

“It’s like a knife in the chest,” Pittsfield coach Ryan Wanek said. “It’s one of the fastest answers I’ve ever seen from a team. When you score two in less than five minutes, less than four minutes, whatever we did, and then for them to answer pretty much immediately – three in eight minutes – is pretty incredible.

 

“So, yeah, it’s like a knife in your heart, and it’s hard to recover from that. It’s hard for the boys to recover on the pitch,and that’s why we called the timeout. We tried to just, you know, pump them up a little bit more to get them into the game, trying to get across the point that there’s still 60 minutes left in the game.”

 

Pope Francis  and kept the pressure on, though.

 

Devine made a play coming off his line to deny an attacker in the middle of the 18 in the 28th minute, and he recorded a leaping save to deny a try into the upper 90 a few minutes later.

 

But with 5:19 left until half, the Cardinals scored on a corner kick to go up, 4-2.

 

That allowed Pope Francis to play a four-man line in the back most of the second half. The Generals did what they could to push forward but managed just three second-half shots on goal.

 

And in the 71st minute, Nicholas Diaz, who assisted on Pope’s first goal, scored unassisted to cap the scoring.

 

Pittsfield scored two beautiful goals to start the game.

 

First, Prosper Ezan Jr. sent a ball from the back up the right wing for Quinn Schaller, who found plenty of space and carried into the 18 before ripping a shot low and to the left of Cardinals keeper Max Graham (five saves).

 

Less than a minute later, Kyle Cardoso sent the ball forward from midfield for Owen Klatka in the middle of the field. Klatka gained possession about 20 yards from goal, created a little space against a pair of Pope defenders and ripped a shot from just outside the 18 that eluded Graham and snuck inside the far post to make it 2-0 before the visitors had a shot on goal.

 

When the opportunity came, Matt Walsh converted that first shot with an assist from Dias to get Pope Franics on the scoreboard with 32:59 left in the half.

 

Five minutes later, Sam Graham converted a rebound off Devine, and Owen Turmel put back a rebound in the 16th minute to give his team the lead for good at 3-2.

 

“Our guys are hungry,” Pope Francis coach Mark Richards said. “I think we’re the second-leading scoring team in Western Mass. We have almost 60 goals in 14 games. So our team loves to score, and whenever there’s a ball anywhere near the goalie, we know that we’ve got guys crashing.”

 

Wednesday’s win moves Pope Francis to 12-0-2 this season.

 

Pittsfield slipped to 9-3-3. It will close out the regular season on Sunday afternoon with a non-league home game against Minnechaug.