FOXBORO, Mass. - For the past three years, the Davenport division has been dominated by Oliver Ames. The Tigers had won three straight titles coming into this season and on Monday afternoon at Sam Berns Field they had a chance to earn a fourth, if they could upend Foxboro, which had already clinched a share of the title.
It was not to be and, as former OA midfielder Gaston Cetrangolo would tweet after the final horn sounded, there was a changing of the guard at the top of the league standings.
Freshman Joe Morrison scored the eventual game winner midway through the second half and junior Devante Teixeira had a goal and an assist, as the Warriors pulled out a 2-0 win to claim the league title outright.
“It was a huge win for us,” said Foxboro coach Pat Nash. “You saw [Bortolotti] out, you saw Barreira out, and Clay [Leopold, starting keeper] out and to come away without three of those stars and for the guys to step up and the young guys to fight for it and show that character is huge for us.”
Knowing that it needed a win to earn a league title, OA stormed out of the gates in the opening half. Foxboro, which needed only a draw to avoid sharing the title, seemed unable to match the intensity of the Tigers in the opening minutes and was pushed deep into its own half for large portions of the half.
In the 11th minute, OA forward Brandon Boone had a claim for a penalty turned down after he went down in the box under a challenge from Foxboro goalie Aaron Wentling. Three minutes later, Keegan Nutt played a long free kick into the box and it bounced all the way to the far post and was then sent straight across the face of goal, but no one got a touch.
In the 27th minute, OA had four chances inside the box. Nutt, Boone, and Chris Romero all sending shots towards goal only to have the combination of Foxboro defenders Jeff Melo and Robby Lowey and Wentling find a way to keep the ball out of the net. Wentling finished the sequence with a diving block from point-blank range.
“Outside, inside, outside and back inside -- it was ridiculous,” said OA assistant coach Dan Garzoglio with a shake of his head. “We just kept waiting for it to get in the net. Credit to the keeper, he did a great job.”
Garzoglio, who took over for the day with head coach John Barata away, added, “We were the better team in the first half. I think the chances that we created built momentum in our favor…Our challenge was that we could not finish.”
Nash credited the defensive effort and his goalie for keeping the team in the game in the first half.
“Between Melo and Aaron I don’t know who had a better game today,” said Nash. “For Aaron to step in cold and not having that much experience; he played unbelievable. They had some good rips at him and he made some big saves.”
In the second half, Foxboro made several adjustments and found it easier to limit OA’s ability to get the ball into Boone or Romero up top. The Warriors also started to pass the ball and control possession better, although both teams struggled to create chances.
“We did an okay job of keeping it in the middle third, but we couldn’t get that last pass and our service to Brandon or to Chris were limited,” said Garzoglio. “Even when we made the adjustment of going with three up top we still couldn’t get it through.”
In the 60th minute, Foxboro finally found some space in the midfield to break forward. Teixeira dropped deep to collect the ball and played a through ball that split the OA defenders to allow Morrison to run onto it. The freshman coolly slid the ball past a sliding Tim Andrew and into the bottom corner.
Nash explained, “I think we had the mindset that we obviously wanted it, but they were hyped up to come in first…and that’s a lot of motivation for them to come in with. I thought we did a nice job of settling down eventually and we found our key guys between Joe Morrison and Devante.”
Oliver Ames now needed two goals to retain its league title and the Tigers immediately started to press forward in numbers. Inevitably, this left space at the back and with six minutes left to play Foxboro took advantage.
Melo played a long ball over the top that picked out Teixeira in space and one-on-one against the right back. The junior forward drove into the box and cut back onto his favored left foot before firing his shot past Andrew and wrapping up the league title.
“We took that chance and put people up forward,” said Garzoglio. “The pregame was to force him inside and unfortunately he’s a talented player and we couldn’t quite get him inside and he took that rip with his left foot and punished us.”
The second goal eased the nerves of Foxboro fans. As it turned out, it was crucial because as the game entered stoppage time, Romero had another shot from inside the six saved by Wentling and the rebound was shot off the post by Boone, who could only watch as the ball rolled along the goal line and into the keeper’s grateful hands.
Nash remarked, “We always look for that finishing goal and we actually do a pretty good job of doing it. If you look at our goals that we’re scoring, we’re usually beating teams by at least two goals and that’s the focus for us in practice to get that second goal.”
Foxboro and Oliver Ames will now wait for the brackets to be released to see where they will be heading in the state tournament.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.