H/B boys fall to Lebanon in D-II semis

Friday, November 11, 2011

EXETER – When the disappointment of Monday’s 4-2 semifinal loss to Lebanon wears off in a day or two, the Hollis/Brookline boys soccer team will look back at the 2011 season as a beginning, certainly not the end.

A young coach, Ricky Carvalho took a young team to heights it couldn’t have imagined back in August. And it is already looking forward to next year.

“We’ll miss the four seniors but I think we’re already looking forward to next year,” Hollis/Brookline junior captain Andrew Cappetta said. “The team chemistry this year was better than it’s ever been, so I think we’ll stay together as a team in the off-season.”

For a while, it looked like the Cavaliers storybook season would have a final chapter in the Division II title game. The Cavaliers got on the board less than a minute into the game. A direct kick from 30 yards out squirted through the defensive wall and right onto the foot of junior Jake Laurent, who blasted it into the right corner.

“It was a foolish foul 20 seconds into the game,” Lebanon coach Rob Johnstone said of the foul that led to the direct kick. “But the good news was we had 79 minutes left and the kid who committed it wouldn’t be so amped up the rest of the game.”

Lebanon would have the majority of opportunities in the first half, especially outstanding senior forward Brady Boisvert, who would be robbed twice by Hollis/Brookline freshman goalkeeper Linds Cadwell.

Cadwell, who became the starter when senior Danny Estrada was lost with a concussion, came up big for the Cavaliers in the first half.

Boisvert had a direct kick knocked away on the diving stop by Cadwell, then broke in on the left side and was robbed by Cadwell again. In between, Cadwell punched away a dangerous ball that flew across the goal mouth.

But Boisvert wouldn’t be denied on his next attempt, a shot from the left side with 12 minutes left in the half that went to the far corner.

“That was one of the more spectacular individual runs I’ve ever seen at this level,” Carvalho said. “Linds came up huge for us tonight and has a bright future. There was nothing he could have done about those two first-half goals.”

Six minutes after Boisvert tied it Lebanon was awarded a penalty kick when Jordan Koloski was tripped along the end line just to the right of the Hollis/Brookline goal.

Koloski took the kick and drilled it into the left corner. It remained 2-1 until midway through the second half, when Carvalho decided to push more players forward and Lebanon scored a pair of quick goals.

“I’m the kind of coach who would rather lose 6-4 than get beat 2-1 and know we didn’t do everything we could to go on the attack and tie the game,” Carvalho said.

Lebanon made it 3-1 when a direct kick from 30 yards out took a tough bounce over a sprawling Cadwell. Less than two minutes later, Cooper Hardy scored to give the Raiders a 4-1 lead. Hollis/Brookline’s Connor Walsh would close the scoring with four minutes left on a feed from Christian Beiter.

Lebanon will be going after its first state title since 1991. Johnstone, whose team didn’t play Hollis/Brookline during the regular season, came away impressed by the Cavaliers.

“They are young, but they have incredible organization and incredible spirit,” Johnstone said of Hollis/Brookline said. “With Ricky at the head of that program they’ll be in the thick of it for years.”