ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Kyle Lameiras had a pair of assists and seniors Luke Chomyszak and Matt Milliken each scored goals on Senior Night, as Attleboro cruised to a 3-0 victory over rival North Attleboro on Monday night at Tozier-Cassidy Field. The victory earned the Bombardiers their first Leach and Garner Cup since 2009 and evened the 30-year series at 15-15.
“The kids haven’t touched that trophy, the seniors, in four years, so we wanted that back,” said Attleboro coach Peter Pereira, whose team finished the season with three straight wins heading into the state tournament.
“It was a good effort by Attleboro and I’m happy,” he added.
Although Attleboro came into the game as heavy favorites, the rivalry between the two schools and two programs always leads to an exciting game with no lack of commitment on either side.
Pereira explained, “It was a typical game. They get all emotional about this [and] you can throw the records out the window and they go at it.”
North Attleboro came out strong and the Rocketeers put pressure on Attleboro’s back line with several high crosses into the box on free kicks that required the attention of Bombardiers keeper Jason Ross.
At the midway point of the first half, North nearly took the lead. Senior Jake Crear, who would be named the Rocketeers MVP for the game, found space on the edge of the box and cut onto his right foot before unleashing an unstoppable shot off the post with Ross a mere spectator.
The goal could have changed the direction the game was headed, although North Attleboro coach Geoff Burgess still thought that Attleboro just had too much for his young team.
“They’re just a better team than us,” he said. “We just make too many mistakes to compete with a quality team like Attleboro.”
Burgess continued, “They’ve got players everywhere and they can finish…we’re having trouble finishing. That makes a huge difference; when you can put it in the back of the net it makes up for a lot of mistakes.”
As it turned out, that chance for Crear would be the best that North created on the day and seemed to wake up the Bombardiers attack. Just six minutes later, Attleboro had the opening goal when Lameiras played in a corner that took a deflection into the path of Chomyszak who hit it first time on the side volley and beat the goalie to make it 1-0.
Fifteen minutes into the second half Attleboro doubled its advantage. Again it was Lameiras that played provider when he beat the North defense to the end line and sent in a perfect square ball across the box to Milliken who easily tapped it in.
The third goal came from a long free kick by Matt Rodrigues, who was named Attleboro’s MVP for the game, that was spilled into the path of his brother Zach and the junior made no mistake from eight yards out.
One of the bright spots for North Attleboro, regardless of his troubles on Attleboro’s third goal was the play of keeper Rob Heaney. The junior made several solid reaction saves to deny Ben Chomyszak, Jack Flynn and Lameiras in the second half.
“Rob is one of the best keepers when it’s reactions and he has to rely on his instincts,” said Burgess. “We were banking on PKs this year. We’ve given up five PKs and he’s saved four of them, so we thought that we had an ace in the hole, if we had been able to get it to PKs.”
North has struggled all season to score goals and one of the issues is the struggle to find Crear in dangerous positions where he can be a goal threat.
Burgess explained, “He might get two chances on a night and if he doesn’t convert on both then we don’t have a chance to win. I give my kids credit -- they passed the ball and played soccer, but ultimately we were probably two passes away from getting him the ball in dangerous places.”
Pereira also credited North for wanting to play a passing game and not going to a kick and run style, which is what he had expected.
“They were trying to play soccer, which is good for us because when teams try to play soccer than we can do it,” he said. “We capitalized when we had chances.”
Pereira continued, “We needed it because this has been a rough year and this will move us up the [standings] in the MIAA tournament. So, now we wait to see who we play next.”
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.