Newburyport boys take flight
For the Newburyport boys soccer team, a result like last week’s 1-0 victory over a quality Division 1 program in Central Catholic would normally be the signature win on the slate. And while coach Shawn Bleau and his team admit it’s the best game they have played all year, it’s not the one they are most proud of.
SOCCER NOTEBOOK
That would be a 1-0 win over North Reading the previous week. The Clippers were assessed a red card after a pair of yellows — borderline ones in Bleau’s opinion — forcing them to continue a man down for nearly three-quarters of the game. But instead of going into a shell and playing for a tie like most teams might, Newburyport stayed aggressive and were rewarded.
“At halftime, we said we are trying to win this game, not sit back,” said Bleau, in his 12th year as Clippers coach and a veteran of 28 seasons on the MIAA sidelines. “That’s the mentality we take into every game.”
The Clippers stood 13-0 entering Saturday night’s ALS Cup game against Pentucket.
Newburyport is the only unbeaten and untied boys squad in Div. 3 and one of just four in the state, along with Hingham, Masconomet and Pathfinder.
The Newburyport program doesn’t exactly have a rich tradition, but this year’s success is not unexpected either. Two seasons ago, the Clippers advanced to the Div. 3 North semifinals for the first time since 2012 and followed up with their first-ever Cape Ann League Kinney Division title last year, finishing in a three-way heat with North Reading and Lynnfield at 7-1-2, but were denied a postseason by the pandemic.
“This team specifically has been building in our coach’s mind for a long time, so I think it’s a product of his hard work and everyone’s hard work,” said senior captain Brady O’Donnell. “We knew that this year was going to be special simply based on how well we did last year and how our J.V. team did. A lot of guys came up from there and have really stepped up for us.”
Bleau knew he would have a solid defensive club coming into the season, led by a pair of senior captains at the center back spots in Graham Smith and Jack Fehlner, and they’ve been as billed. With junior Owen Tahnk in net, a first-year starter, the Clippers have allowed just four goals.
The offense has been a revelation, however. After a 6-1 rout of Georgetown, Newburyport has found the twine a school-record 50 times with five regular season games still remaining.
“To score like we have, that’s been a surprise,” said Bleau. “We have like six kids that score, so you can’t really focus on one player, or two for that matter. We have three guys with six or seven goals, and the subs are coming and scoring so there is some depth putting the ball in the net.”
Eastern Mass. All-Star Max Gagnon, a senior captain and fouryear starter, is the catalyst in the midfield for a diverse offensive attack. O’Donnell paces the Clippers with eight goals and six assists, but Newburyport has gotten scoring contributions from a number of different sources, including dynamic junior Will Acquaviva, who missed much of last year due to injury.
Even the defense has gotten involved as Fehlner leads the squad in assists, with many of them coming off his dangerous throw-ins.
“Set pieces, free kicks and corner kicks, we have scored a lot on those, which we didn’t in past years,” said Gagnon. “We are all pretty unselfish and all play as a team.”
The immediate focus for the Clippers is another CAL Kinney championship — O’Donnell said the team has derived particular motivation in going after an outright crown after having to share last year — but it’s no secret they are salivating for a shot at a deep tournament run.
Despite its unblemished mark, Newburyport landed at No. 10 this week in the Div. 3 ratings that will determine seedings in the new statewide format, a function of a particularly low opponents rating average, tumbling from a top four position in the initial release that would earn as many as three home games.
Still, the team’s perfect start has certainly legitimized the lofty ambitions this group has set for itself.
“Winning a state championship has pretty much been our goal since my freshman year, really, so we know this year is special and we need to take advantage of it,” said O’Donnell.
A Significant honor
A well-balanced soccer team typically combines proficiency on both halves of the field. A well-balanced program, however, encompasses more than just how it performs on the pitch.
The Dover-Sherborn girls soccer program has prided itself in having both in its four years under the stewardship of Evren Gunduz, and this week he was recognized as the Massachusetts recipient of the Coach of Significance Award from the United Soccer Coaches for 2021.
Gunduz expressed that he was honored by the award and shared much of the credit.
“The D-S school district’s staff, athletic director Emily Sullivan, the families, our coaches, and the great coaches in the Tri-Valley League do an extraordinary job of supporting excellence in our studentathletes,” said Gunduz. “United Soccer Coaches is a top class organization whose courses, resources, and pedagogy have been a part of my coaching career since the beginning. To represent their values and mission means a lot as they have given a lot to me. Coaching is simply a form of teaching and the competitive high school soccer pitch is the greatest classroom in which our student-athletes can learn the skills needed to thrive in their life and enjoy their life.”
While Gunduz prefers his program be judged by much more than results, the fact is they have been pretty good under his leadership. The Raiders claimed Tri-Valley League Small and Division 3 South sectional titles in 2019 and are in the hunt for another division crown this year at 10-2-1, sitting one point behind Dedham with a big showdown looming with the Marauders on Thursday.
“It is a testament to the quality, class, and character of the soccer student-athletes we are lucky to work with at D-S,” said Gunduz. “We have a belief in the DSGS program that the true success of our team isn’t measured by the scoreboard wins during the season but by how well our players are competing in life off the field five years after graduating from DS.”