It feels amazing. To finally take the conference from West Bridgewater. To finally get that win. There’s no way to explain the feeling.”

Senior co-captain Antonio Dutra Africano

Senior midfielder Antonio Dutra Africano headed in two goals as Westport dominated West Bridgewater 4-1 on Tuesday to clinch the Mayflower Athletic Conference crown. It’s been eight long years since the Wildcats captured the title in 2014. West Bridgewater has held the conference title and has been a thorn in the team’s side, since head coach Chris Parker took over at Westport in 2017. After the victory the Wildcats finally let out their frustration with a mighty team cheer during their post game chat.

“It feels amazing,” said Dutra Africano after the win. “To finally take the conference from West Bridgewater. To finally get that win. There’s no way to explain the feeling.” 

“We were due for a win,” added Coltrane McGonigle a senior captain along with Dutra Africano and Hunter Brodeur.  “We’ve been working so hard this season in practice and in the games.”

The undefeated Wildcats are currently 13-0-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the MAC. The lone tie was a  2-2 game at West Bridgewater earlier in the season.

“In my five years, we’ve always had to go through West Bridgewater,” said Coach Parker. “They’ve been the team at the top of the conference. It felt really good to have to go through them yet again, play as well as we did and control play from start to finish.” 

In the tie, the Wildcats were up 2-0, but gave up an early goal in the second half and allowed West Bridgewater to tie the game on a free kick late in the game. That same scenario came up again on Tuesday night. 

“I was wondering a bit,” said Coach Parker. “But our guys responded really well. I thought they played outstanding. Everyone contributed.”

Junior midfielder Ben Novo scored a goal and assisted on a Dutra-Africano header and junior midfielder Tommy Bernard also scored for the Wildcats as they controlled play throughout the game.

“We completely out possessed them in the first half,” said Dutra Africano. “We created more shot opportunities and our ability to cross the ball and get our head on the ball in almost every attack helped out, offensively.”

The Wildcats have been working on their “wide and glide” style of offense. Coach Parker and the team have been using film of their games and practices to enhance their knowledge and work on their spacing. 

“I think it really helped,” said Coach Parker. “Our spacing against West Bridgewater was the best it’s been all year. Spacing will be critical in the state tournament.” 

The Wildcats have also worked on their ‘good goal box habits.’

“Finish your runs, linger around the goal for second chance opportunities. That’s all gotten better,” he said. 

Defensively, goalkeeper Noah Amaral made just four saves, but contributed immensely on defense. The sophomore helped to control the game by scooping up any runaway balls that came his way and quickly transitioning the team back on offense with a toss pass or booming kick. The goalkeeper has been superb, letting in just seven goals in 14 games this season with nine shutouts. “We’ve had a pretty successful season so far,” Dutra Africano said. “We’ve kept almost every game to a clean sheet. Against tougher team’s like West Bridgewater we’ve had to lock in and play well.”

Brodeur nets two in 4-1 defeat of Diman on Saturday

Senior striker Hunter Brodeur scored two goals as the Wildcats roughed up Diman 4-1 on Saturday. Brodeur who is lauded by Coach Parker and his teammates for his unselfish play, currently has 27 goals for the season and has a chance to eclipse Westport’s single season scoring record of 41 goals. “His head is always up,” Coach Parker said. Hunter is always looking for his teammates. He’s very mature in that way. He knows that the goals will come when they come.”

Junior midfielder Ben Boudria came back from an injury and booted in two goals against Diman. Dutra Africano added two assists and Amaral made five saves during the game. Noah Sowle has also come back from injury as the team looks to get healthy for their tournament run. 

“Ben has been phenomenal for us,” said Coach Parker. “Noah Sowle can play anywhere on the field. He’s our Energizer Bunny off the bench. He always gives maximum effort and works to win the ball. He’s a solid player.”

McGonigle the Wildcats central midfielder is a tall, talented and bruising player. As a youth he was always expected to score. But playing along side the likes of Dutra Africano and Hunter Brodeur has taken the pressure off and now the athletic beast can let loose and wreak havoc all over the field.

“Playing with Hunter and Antonio, they are always there for me,” he said. “Hunter is a prolific goal scorer. If we all get going, there’s nothing our opponent can do.” 

McGonigle is worried that the team will get too cocky heading into playoffs and he plans to help keep the team on an even keel during practice. 

“We’re not invincible,” McGonigle said. “There’s a million ways that we can improve. We have to keep our heads above the water. We can’t drown in this confidence.”

Moving on to new goals

Now that Westport has won the MAC, they are moving on to other goals. More important goals, like moving up the power ranking ranks to get a higher seed for the state tournament. 

“We need to win out and we need to try to win each game by three goals,” Coach Parker said. “We need to climb in the power rankings. Right now, even though we are undefeated, we are fourteenth.” 

Westport has four regular season games left, hosting Bristol Plymouth on Monday, Nantucket on Wednesday and traveling to Southeastern on Friday and Bishop Connolly on Saturday. The Division Five bracket will be out soon after as the tournament begins in November. “You want to peak at the right time. This is the time of the year that you want to be trending upward,” said Coach Parker. 

Latest win

On Monday, the Wildcats crushed  Bristol-Plymouth 5-0. Brodeur scored  a hatrick boosting his total goals to 30 for the season.  Dutra Africano and Will Quinlan each scored a goal a piece. Other contributors with key assists were Coltrane McGonigle, Tyler Arraial, and Jake Cross as Westport improved their record to 14-0-1.