East Providence High School boys' soccer team fails to claim playoff bid in final home game

Townies must accrue necessary points on the road; EPHS girls' upset Westerly

By Mike Rego
Posted 10/21/18

EAST PROVIDENCE — The already tough task facing the East Providence High School boys’ soccer team in its quest to earn a spot in the upcoming Division I playoffs became that much more …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


East Providence High School boys' soccer team fails to claim playoff bid in final home game

Townies must accrue necessary points on the road; EPHS girls' upset Westerly

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — The already tough task facing the East Providence High School boys’ soccer team in its quest to earn a spot in the upcoming Division I playoffs became that much more difficult for the Townies after they suffered a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to visiting Cumberland on Senior Night Saturday, Oct. 20.
The Clippers, who’ve clinched their place in the state championship tournament, notched the game-winning tally on a seemingly innocuous shot in the 75th of 80 minutes. Cumberland improved to 7-4-3 and with 24 points in the league table.
For East Providence, which saw its record drop to 2-5-5 and with 11 points, it now must amass at least four points from its final three regular season games to earn the minimum qualification total of 15 to make the playoffs. The difficulty lay in the fact the Townies were playing all three of those contests on the road and against co-league leaders Tolman and LaSalle (each 9-0-4) and fourth-place Moses Brown (7-2-4).
The Townies return to action Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Providence against Moses Brown. They return to Capital City on Thursday, Oct. 25, to play LaSalle, then travel to Pawtucket to face Tolman to finish the week and their regular season on Friday, Oct. 26.
“I told them we need to get a result Tuesday or we are going to start using some of our younger guys to get experience,” EPHS head coach Tony Vieira said after Saturday’s setback. The Townies likely need at least a point against Moses Brown to make their final two contests meaningful.
“We still have a chance, but it won’t be easy,” he added. “If we belong in the playoffs then we would need to beat a team like those three anyway, so we’ll see how it plays out.”
Cumberland notes
Aidan Bagley put visiting Cumberland out front within the first 10 minutes of Saturday’s game, finishing off a direct attack that started in the Clippers’ end.
From there, East Providence had more the possession, maintaining consistent pressure for roughly the next 20 minutes of the opening period, but the locals were unable to create any real scoring opportunities. The few attempts at the front of the Cumberland goal were either cleared away by the Clippers’ back four or handled easily by keeper Jake Reed (10 saves).
The Townies' best opportunities over the span came on a throughball to Leandro Frias, but both Reed and a Clipper defender rush out to scuttle the attempt at the top of the 18-yard circle, and Bradley Teixeira, whose shot from about 15 yards out was contested and deflected from harm's way.
Cumberland reasserted itself offensively over the final 10 minutes, including a stretch when the Clippers forced a handful of corners. But only once did they test E.P. starting keeper and senior Nikolai Zakrzewski (4 saves), forcing him into a diving stop in the waning moments of the half.
Zakrzewski was one of 12 East Providence seniors who were honored at intermission and who saw more playing time than usual in the first half.
Seemingly playing with a sense of greater urgency to start the second period, the Townies were on the front foot from the opening whistle and their effort eventually paid off when the Clippers were called for a foul inside the 18 in the 53rd minute. East Providence’s leading scorer Paulo Schultz-Lyra created the penalty, racing past a Cumberland defender to the ball. Schultz-Lyra took the ensuing kick, beating Reed high to the keeper’s left for his sixth goal of the season.
The sides appeared headed to a draw as the clock wound down only to have the Clippers take advantage of a seemingly harmless go at the ball in the final few minutes. Shane Cardoso took possession at the left of the 18 yard box, dribbled slightly past an E.P. defender then lofted a shot that looked like it was going wide of the target.
It didn’t.
Instead, it flew knowingly over the shoulder of E.P. replacement keeper Andrew Mongeon (6 saves), perfectly striking the meeting of the crossbar and post in the upper right-hand corner of the cage and falling into the net for the game-winner.
Girls’ soccer notes
In a span of two games, the East Providence High School girls’ soccer team saw its playoff chances quashed, then pulled off one of the more notable upsets of the Division II season to date.
In a meeting between two sides seeking qualification into the upcoming league championship playoffs, EPHS fell to visiting West Warwick, 1-0, in a Division II outing last week. The victory gave the Wizards the necessary 19 points to earn a playoff bid as they improved to 5-4-4 on the fall. The only goal came off a scramble in front of the E.P. net in the second half. The loss officially eliminated the Townies from postseason contention as they fell to 3-8-3 with 12 points in the standings and with just two games, with only six points available, remaining on their regular season schedule at the time.
Saturday night, Oct. 20, the Townies traveled to face second-place Westerly (9-3-3) and came away with a stunning 1-0 victory. E.P. freshman Olivia Williams potted the game’s lone goal in the first half off a feed from Emily Gorski. Mia Jackson made the tally hold up, finishing with six saves in the Townies’ net for the clean sheet.
East Providence improved to 4-8-3 (15 points) and completes its 2018 season at home against Wheeler Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 24.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.