RallyNorth.net

Thu, Sep 01, 2011 04:00 PM @ Timberlane

Team	1st	2nd	Final
Pinkerton	1	3	4
Timberlane	1	1	2

Defending champion Astros open season strong

Thursday, September, 01 By Jeff Hamrick

PLAISTOW – The Pinkerton boys soccer team remained undefeated through the season’s first week, but the defending state champion Astros didn’t have it easy yesterday against an opponent they’ve dominated in recent years.

Pinkerton broke open a 1-1 tie with a pair of second-half goals 66 seconds apart and went on to defeat Timberlane 4-2.

“I feel fortunate, to be perfectly honest, to be 2-0-1 at this point,” Pinkerton coach Kyle Boles said. “We made some goofy mistakes. We seemed to take control there in the first half, then all of a sudden we make some mistakes and open the door for them in the second half ... (Timberlane) seemed to run right through us at times. The first 5 minutes of the game, (the Owls) could’ve had a 2-0 lead ... It wasn’t really a 4-2 game. It was scary.”

Both teams had opportunities in the opening half, but it wasn’t until the 17^th minute before Pinkerton took the lead on a goal by Kyle Charbonneau who got behind Timberlane goalie Thomas Sullivan and was assisted by Tim Wood.

But Timberlane, which had been held scoreless each of the previous four years against Pinkerton while being outscored 14-0 in those five games, finally broke through with an unassisted goal by Gunnar Ericsson with 3:48 left in the half.

“We like to hang our hats on two years ago when we lost 1-0 with 44 seconds left in regulation,” said Timberlane coach Bill Mealey, whose squad fell to 1-2. “But even in that game we did not score, so this was big for us. Their keeper (Pete Siragusa, who had four saves) is excellent and (Pinkerton’s) backs are always phenomenal. So be able to slide a couple past behind those backs and that keeper, yeah, we’re pretty proud of that.”

The Astros, however, took control after intermission. Antonio Villavicencio provided a 2-1 lead in the 11^th minute off a nice pass from Sean Smith, who assisted on all three of Pinkerton’s second-half goals. A little more than a minute later, Smith slipped a pass to Jed Duchene on a goal that was set up by Shane Whitehouse, who dribbled the ball deep before finding Smith.

“The first half overall we came out flat,” Smith said. “We were on each other at halftime. We just knew we had to come out in the second half strong. Me and Tony being up top we just took it upon ourselves to get out strong.”

 Villavicencio capped Pinkerton’s scoring off another assist by Smith for a 4-1 lead with 3:10 left. While the Astros were scoring three goals, the Owls were unable to get more than one shot on net.

“It’s a situation where you have to understand what you’re opponent is going to give you,” Boles said. “And we weren’t understanding. We were trying to go with what wanted to do and what we’ve practiced, and I can’t fault the kids for that. But you also have to understand who the opponent is. And the opponent was giving us chances to go down the middle of the field ... and we weren’t doing that in the first half.”

Timberlane cut the deficit to two on a goal by Ryan Kennedy off an assist by freshman Tyler Donovan.

With five starters returning from last year’s state titlist, Pinkerton obviously won’t find repeating an easy task, but the early-season success does have the Astros optimistic.

“Last year, we might have had a little more depth on the bench,” Villavicencio said. “This team, we like to fight hard. Last year we might have had more skill, but this team fights harder. We have way more heart this year ... We have to maintain our composure. We can’t let up with any silly mistakes.”