Scarborough had the right players in the right place four times Monday night, and it was more than enough.

The Red Storm scored their goals on restarts to roll to a 4-0 win over Deering in a season-opening SMAA boys’ soccer game at Memorial Field.

“We drew a ton of fouls and we capitalized on them at the right time,” senior striker Matt Caron said. “We know how to draw fouls.”

“We counted 12 fouls in the defensive third (of the field), and they scored on three of them, and they had a throw-in,” Deering Coach Joel Costigan said. “We ended up chasing and fouling from behind. It’s not good defending and it’s not the way we want to play.

“We know we can be the most skilled team in the conference, but we’re not going to win games if we don’t do the simple things we work on.”

The Rams carried the play during the first 15 minutes. They had two excellent scoring opportunities in the early going, but Scarborough goalie Cameron Nigro came up big both times.

“Cam is solid,” Scarborough Coach Mark Diaz said. “We hoped we didn’t need him that much but we did, and it’s good to know he can do that for us.”

During the ninth minute, Paolo DeMarco fired off a blast from the left corner and Nigro leaped high to poke the ball over the crossbar.

Two minutes later, Nigro made a diving save when Erick Martinez-Pereira tried to redirect Jonata Mbongo’s pass from the right corner past him from point-blank range.

“Cam kind of settles us down a little bit,” junior midfielder Garrett King said. “He keeps our minds clear. He makes those big saves in the beginning so we can calm ourselves down.”

King scored the Red Storm’s first goal 23 minutes into a game.

The goal was set up by Caron’s throw-in. Standing about 30 yards up the right sideline, Caron lofted a high-arcing throw toward the goal. Goalie Orey Dutton came 10 yards off his line to field the ball. He got his fingertips on the ball at the top of his leap but was unable to hang onto it, and King was there to roll it into the open goal.

“It’s all about jumping on the goal early,” King said. “That’s what we’ve been taught.”

The Red Storm scored three goals in the second half to turn the game into a rout.

Noah Stacqualursi made it 2-0 in the 53rd minute when he scored on a rebound following a direct kick from well outside the box. He used his body to direct the ball inside the left post after a shot to the right side glanced off Dutton’s body.

With 20 minutes left, King made it 3-0 when he put in a shot from 10 yards during a melee in front of the goal following another direct kick.

“(King) finds his little pockets of space and today it worked out for him,” Diaz said. “He was in the right spot.”

With less than 10 minutes left, Alex Giles completed the scoring by putting in a header from 15 yards following Samuel Jacob’s perfect serve on another restart.

The Rams played without Jonathan Bujambi, a senior midfielder who served a one-game suspension after he received a red card in the final game last season.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories