So, who has the best boys’ soccer team in the city?
Portland visited Deering High on a misty, foggy Tuesday evening to settle that question on the last day of the regular season, and the answer that emerged was this:
To Be Determined.
The Rams and Bulldogs played to a 1-1 tie and now await their playoff seedings. Deering (11-1-2) entered the game ranked third in Class A South and will have a bye into the quarterfinal round next Tuesday while sixth-ranked Portland (9-3-2) is likely to play a preliminary-round game Friday.
“I don’t think it affects the standings a lot,” Portland junior Quinn Clarke said, “but it gives us a big moral boost. Deering’s been a talk-about game the whole season. It would have been nice to get a win, but I think we’re all right with a tie and look forward to the playoffs.”
Clarke scored the equalizer early in the second half, not quite two minutes after Orey Dutton had put Deering up 1-0. Neither team could manage a second goal over the final 31 minutes of regulation plus two 5-minute overtime periods.
“There were definitely chances where we could have scored and sealed it shut, and we should have,” Dutton said, “but I’m not disappointed with the way everybody played. Everybody played hard. It just wasn’t always the smartest play.”
The Bulldogs had a slight edge (6-5) in shots on goal and had eight penalty corners to Deering’s four. Half of those Rams corners came in the second overtime period, when Deering also saw a hard shot by Hisham Ramadan blocked by Portland back Aaron Hoekstra.
Early in the second overtime period, Portland’s Alex Frank sent a long ball into the box where Deering keeper Mustafa Kadhim and a teammate collided, jarring the ball loose long enough for Portland’s Pedro Fonseca to get a toe on it, but Kadhim recovered in time to make the save.
“Miscommunication,” Kadhim said. “I always get the balls in the air near the six.”
Kadhim finished with five saves and Portland’s Rowan Daligan had four. Fonseca earned a yellow card in the game’s third minute for putting a knee to Kadhim’s neck after the goalie had gathered in a loose ball.
“They play physical,” Kadhim said. “They’re our rivals. They have a history with us.”
Dutton’s goal came about after a pass from Lounge Turahimbawe sent Dutton streaking toward the right post. Clarke smothered an initial shot attempt and sent both players sprawling. Dutton popped up and attempted a cross to Iessa Ramadan, but the pass deflected off another Portland defender and into the net.
It didn’t take long for Portland to respond. Clarke redirected a corner kick from freshman Alex Millones inside the near post to make it 1-1.
“We were all feeling down a bit and to get a goal so quickly, that really got us fired up,” Clarke said. “I’ve been making the same run all year, front post, and this time it happened to come to me.”
“This is the kind of game you don’t like to see anybody lose,” Portland Coach Rocco Frenzilli said. “It was a well-played game from box to box.”
“We work hard in practice on certain concepts, and when we’re in a game and we don’t execute them, it’s frustrating,” said Deering Coach Joel Costigan. “Moving into the playoffs, we need to make sure that we’re able to play soccer rather than play emotional.”
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