ATTLEBORO, Mass. - It hasn't exactly been the smoothest road for the Attleboro High School boys soccer team, but they had plenty to smile about on Thursday as they capped off a day full of positives with a 3-0 win over rival North Attleboro.
The Bombardiers learned early in the day that they qualified for the MIAA state tournament despite having to forfeit seven games at the beginning of the season. Then they went on to extract revenge from their rivals North Attleboro, who they tied the first time around but lost in penalty kicks to determine the Leach & Garner Cup winner.
MIAA VOTES ATTLEBORO INTO THE PLAYOFFS
After an ineligible player forced seven forfeits from the Bombardiers early in the season, the team didn't give up and continued to battle through the season. They did enough to earn enough points that they would have qualified for the postseason without the forfeits, but their fate was in the hands of the MIAA.
On Thursday, head coach Peter Pereira and eight of his players, alongside Principal Bill Runey and Athletic Director Mark Houle, presented their case to 19 members of the MIAA. Runey, Houle and senior captain Eoin Grimes were the ones to address the committee.
"I just said that we shouldn't be punished for something that wasn't our fault," Grimes said. "We worked hard all season and we had nothing to show for it. The state tournament is for the best teams in the state and we're one of the best teams in the state and we deserve to be there."
As the members voted in front of the group, the Attleboro players sat on the edge of their seats as the vote was split 9 against and 9 in favor with just the chairman left to vote. And for what seems like the first time this season, good fortune favored Attleboro and the chairman voted in favor of the Bombardiers qualifying for the post season.
"The kids were super excited and they were jumping and hugging each other when we came out," said Pereira. "It's big to them, what happened was not their fault."
The team didn't celebrate right away but as soon as they exited the room, the celebration was on.
"We waited to we go outside, we composed ourselves," Grimes said with a laugh. "It was crazy we were jumping all over each other it was awesome."
Pereira said that the MIAA has yet to determine how the Bombardiers will be seeded, as one committee member pointed out that putting them in with a bad seed might not be fair to a high seed. Either way, a new life has seemingly been injected into Attleboro.
"We have something to play for now," Grimes said. "We have something to prove that we're one of the best teams and we deserve to be there. Even if we don't go too far, we have to play hard to show them that they made the right choice to let us into the tournament."
MOMENTUM CARRIES OVER INTO SHUTOUT WIN
It seemed only fitting that the first game Attleboro played after learning their playoff fate was against rival North Attleboro, the first team they played after having forfeited seven games.
That game finished 0-0 and North went on the claim the Leach & Garner Cup on penalty kicks, but a rejuvenated Attleboro side extracted revenge, scoring once in the first half and twice in the second to win 3-0.
"When you play North Attleboro, they are our biggest rivals and we both get up for each other," Pereira said. "We didn't particularly well in the first half but in the second half we settled the ball a little bit more and had better possession. We had some opportunities but their goalie had quite a few good saves there. We needed to come out of the little slump we had."
The first serious chance of the game came over 30 minutes into the first half as Attleboro junior Matt Rodrigues fired a low shot from the 18 yard line that hit off the post and went wide. But just three minutes later with 4:24 remaining, Junior Coca sent in a cross that saw Kyle Lameiras coming flying into the area and head home into the far post corner to give Attleboro a 1-0 lead.
"Kyle came in and created more things and got a nice goal with a nice header," Pereira said.
It didn't take long for the Bombardiers to double their lead as just four minutes into the second half, a pass bounced up on a North Attleboro defender in the area and hit his hand, giving Attleboro a penalty kick. Rodrigues placed it to the right corner and into the net for a 2-0 lead.
It looked as though North Attleboro had cut the lead in half just under 10 minutes later as Attleboro goalie Jason Ross made the original save but the ball bounced back in and was knocked home by a Rocketeer, however the ref signaled Ross' first attempt hit off the football goalposts and not the crossbar.
Rodrigues almost had his second of the game, when Lameiras found Nathan Gale on the wing, who played a nice through ball to Rodrigues. The junior then fired from about 12 yards out but North goalie Austin Renzi dove to his right and made a super save.
"In the second half their goalie stopped us three or four times so he did a great job," Pereira said of Renzi.
Attleboro was finally able to tack on their third goal with just over four minutes to play as Coca picked up his second assist. He played in a free kick from near the sidelines that saw senior Connor Silva run onto and get a slight touch with the top of his foot, sending the ball skipping past Renzi and North defenders and into the far post side netting.
"We came out with a lot of energy after finding out we qualified for states today," Grimes said. "We wanted this game bad with it being North and everything."
With hope back for the Bombardiers, both Grimes and Pereira expect players to have a second wind heading into the postseason.
"That's what I'm hoping will happen," Pereira said.
Attleboro now improves to 3-10-4 and will close out the regular season on Monday with a non-league home game against Dartmouth. North Attleboro finishes their 2013 campaign at 1-14-3.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.