H/B boys headed to semifinal

Friday, November 4, 2011

Joe Marchilena photo Hollis/Brookline's Jeff Kulpa battles with a Pelham player for control of the ball during a game earlier this season.

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The Hollis/Brookline High School boys soccer team was 15 minutes from getting on the bus to Exeter on Tuesday night.

That’s when Cavaliers coach Rick Carvalho’s cell phone rang. It was athletic director Rhon Rupp on the other end, telling Carvalho to delay getting on board.

“He called and said hold the bus,” Carvalho said. “A transformer blew at (Bill Ball) stadium and they can’t light it.”

Rupp told Carvalho he’d call back by 6:30. He did, and said the game – a Division II quarterfinal contest against Windham which was originally scheduled for Sunday – was off again.

“We were hopeful to play Sunday, but after the snow, we spent two days trying to find anything,” Carvalho said. “We were supposed to be the home team, but nothing was available. We found that Exeter would allow us to play at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. It is what it is, so we’ll take it.”

But the blown transformer delayed the first game – a Division III boys soccer quarterfinal – scheduled for the field. H/B decided it would take the new proposed time – 11 a.m. on Wednesday. After a slow start, the third-seeded Cavs scored twice in the final 10 minutes to beat No. 11 Windham 2-0.

While he was proud of his players, Carvalho was appreciative of Rupp’s work.

“He worked tirelessly to get this game in,” Carvalho said. “I don’t know if he slept, I was on the phone with him so much. Luckily we did play and we won, but it was just a mess.”

Christian Beiter scored what proved to be the game-winner in the 72nd minutes, and Sam Whitaker provided breathing room with a goal in the 76th minute. Andrew Cappetta assisted on both goals while Linds Cadwell made seven saves. H/B got solid defense from Connor Walsh, Sam VanNoy and Ryan Papineau.

The Cavs will now take on No. 2 Lebanon at 4 p.m. Friday at Stellos Stadium in the semifinals.

“It’s been a huge struggle,” Carvalho said. “About 90 percent (of the players) don’t have power. We’ve communicated mostly through text message.”

Carvalho knew that some players who lived close enough together went door-to-door to pass along information, and he was prepared to do the same, if needed.

After not practicing for three days, the team was able to get together Monday night at Leda Lanes in Nashua.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, but then again, there’s never been this much snow in October,” Carvalho said. “We met up at Leda Lanes just to get together, and only 65 percent of the guys knew about it.”

After the game, Carvalho found out that one of the player’s parents got their power back, and offered it up to the team.

“They opened their home to the team to come down, shower if need, and spend time together,” he said. “We’ll enjoy the (win) and prepare for Lebanon.”

Volleyball on hold

The H/B volleyball team, seeded second in the Division I tournament, was supposed to play No. 6 Bishop Guertin on Wednesday at Pinkerton Academy. The match was postponed, but not because of either team involved, or the playoff site.

Merrimack, which was to play Nashua North in the other semifinal, is unable to play games when there is no school due to a district policy.

“We haven’t played since Saturday,” Hollis/Brookline coach Becky Balfour said. “We are really eager to play, but we have to wait. It just means another practice. We love to play whether it’s a game or practice. We’ll be ready to go.”

H/B was scheduled to play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, and a win means it would play in the final Saturday at 7 p.m.