Mad dash caps Warriors’ yearlong quest
DIV. 3 BOYS SOCCER
WORCESTER — As he watched Norwell set up for a corner kick in the pouring rain, Nipmuc senior Collin Flanagan wasn’t focused on preventing the tying goal. He was only thinking of ending the battle.
When the ball bounced his way in the 80th minute, Flanagan took off. The senior defenseman went coast-to-coast, finishing the opennet goal, and hand-delivering the Warriors the Div. 3 state title with a 2-0 victory over Norwell at Worcester State.
“As soon as the ball went out on the corner, I went to my other center back Timmy (Carey), and I told him I was going on a run,” Flanagan said. “Everything worked out for that. I got to the 50, hit a long touch. Saw the keeper out of the corner of my eye at the 25 or so, hit it with my left, and I thought it was going wide, and it went in.”
The goal was the first of Flanagan’s varsity career, and it came on the biggest stage, in the final game of his Warriors career.
“I can’t find the words yet.” Flanagan said. “First varsity goal, it clinched the state championship there. You can’t even dream about that one.”
What ended in despair for Nipmuc (20-2-2) in 2016, ended in jubilation yesterday. Last season the Warriors lost a 2-0 decision to Wayland in the state final — a moment coach Chris Hadfield did not forget.
“We have our Wayland celebration newspaper on our bulletin board in our locker room,” Hadfield said. “That’s been our motivation to get back here, fight and to have another chance to win the states. Very proud of the boys and what they did this season.”
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Nathan Vance, which came off a free kick from Flanagan in the 31st minute. The ball bounced around in the box, before Jordan Andrade corralled it, then passed it to Vance in front of Norwell’s net for the easy finish.
Despite losing star forward Tyler Studley for the second half to a knee injury, Norwell (19-3-2) still had chances to knot the game but Flanagan’s rush ended those hopes.
After a 23-year drought, the hardware is headed back to Nipmuc.
“I think last year was a wakeup call,” Flanagan said. “We knew that we had to give this one more than everything. Last year, playing against a Wayland powerhouse. This year, (Norwell) came in and had beaten people no one had expected them to beat. We couldn’t underestimate them. We had to give everything we had on this one.”