×

Souhegan advances with win over Kennett

AMHERST – The Souhegan High School boys soccer team scored twice in the first two minutes, 39 seconds and then added three more goals in the final six minutes, three seconds of the first half to defeat visiting Kennett 5-1 on Saturday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Division II tournament.

“We attacked really well in the first half,” Sabers coach David Saxe said. “Right from the get-go, the boys were on a mission.”

The sixth-seeded Sabers went on the board 1:31 into the game when captain and forward Devan Casey found the back of the net. Forward Ali Eweiss knocked in a goal assisted by midfielder Ely Marciano to make the score 2-0 less than three minutes into the contest.

“That was really important,” Saxe said about taking a 2-0 advantage less than three minutes into the game. “We had a bit of a struggle in the last match against a super hard working team. We couldn’t get into the attacking third very well and to get in early was pretty good for us.”

The Sabers would keep up the pressure and Eweiss had a strong chance off a feed from midfielder Mason Young with about 10 minutes remaining in the opening half. The Sabers would generate a free kick opportunity about a minute later from 28 yards out. The Sabers would find the third goal of the game, which came from captain Matt Hopfenspirger, off a corner kick from captain and midfielder Jasper Jones.

Captain Patrick Noble would set up the fourth goal for the Sabers off a free kick, and Young would finish it off by putting it in the back of the net with 2:13 left in the half.

Young was not done, as he put in another goal with under two minutes left in the first half assisted by midfielder Josh Anson to make it 5-0. No. 14 Kennett responded at the end of the first half when Lee Dennis found the back of the net.

“Well it (has) been that way all year,” Saxe said about the many contributors on the offensive side. “We haven’t relied on any one person. We try to get three, four, five guys involved in every attack to make sure that we have some options available to us.”

Souhegan was scheduled to take on seventh-seeded Goffstown on Wednesday at Nashua’s Stellos Stadium in the semifinal round. The championship game will be held Saturday at 4 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University.