Benitez nets winner in 80th minute
CUMBERLAND — The Cumberland boys soccer team was just seconds away from settling for another frustrating draw that saw them take a lead at Tucker Field, only to throw it away.
And then Clipper senior captain Ricardo Benitez changed the narrative with one strike of his powerful right foot.
After Clipper midfielder Matt Lopes shredded Smithfield’s midfield with a superb run, he found Benitez open at the top of the box.
Instead of attacking a clogged penalty box, Benitez ripped a shot from 20 yards that snuck past the dive of goalie Robert Joseph to secure Cumberland a crucial, 3-2 Division I victory Saturday afternoon.
“It was the last few seconds of the game and I had all this space I needed to take the shot, so I let it rip and got lucky he didn’t save it because he was right there,” Benitez said. “I got lucky with that. We needed this win because they were last in the league and it would’ve been bad if we didn’t get a win.”
“This game was very frustrating because we have a team that has a lot of talent that we believe can go places,” Cumberland coach Justin Resendes said. “When you’re playing a team that’s down the bottom, you have to take care of business early and not allow them to get into the game and feel like they have life. We just did enough to get by.”
Smithfield (0-8 Division I) came into the game with just one league goal and it proved to be a consolation effort in a 4-1 defeat to Classical on Sept. 14. Saturday, the Sentinels needed just two minutes early in the second half to turn the contest on its head.
Trailing by a goal in the 49th minute, the Sentinels tied the game when senior forward Jesse Greene sprung Cumberland’s offside trap and ripped a shot past goalie Jacob Reed. Less than two minutes later, the Sentinels were ahead in the second half for the first time all season because of a Cumberland midfield error.
After the Clippers turned the ball over in their own half, Greene was played into the penalty box and put another shot past Reed.
“Kudos to Smithfield for competing and doing what they needed to do to challenge us,” Resendes said. “They did a great job playing with high energy and sending balls over the top and being dangerous behind us. It was a great match for them, but for us we have a lot to work on when we play teams where we have more of the ball.”
Cumberland (5-1-3 Division I) was riding a seven-game unbeaten run headed into the contest, but the Clippers tied their previous two contests to reigning Division II champion Moses Brown (33) and Tolman (2-2).
The Clippers only trailed for two minutes because the Sentinels committed a needless foul in the penalty box and Cumberland senior Aidan Bagley scored in the 53rd minute to tie the game.
After allowing Smithfield to control the tempo of the game for the first 15 minutes of the second, Cumberland, behind the play of Bagley, Lopes, Juliano Silva and Jonathan Baker, started to pin Smithfield in its own half of the field. Cumberland’s first good chance to retake the lead came in the 65th minute through Shane Cardoso.
“Knowing that we were down brought us back up because we were a little too confident early in the game,” Benitez said. “The last 20 minutes we really went after them.”
Benitez had a chance to be the hero in the 71st minute, but he dragged his shot from the right side of the penalty box wide of the goal. Cumberland A Y t t t A thought it was going to have to settle for a tie when Joseph made a superb save to deny Edwin Goncalves in the 77th minute. Instead, Cumberland earned one more chance and Benitez delivered.
The win is crucial because it keeps the Clippers tied for first place in the division with undefeated La Salle. Bisht s op Hendricken, Portsmouth, Moses Brown, North Kingstown, Central and Tolman are also battling for home-field advantage in the quarterfinals. t
“That’s our goal,” Resendes said. “We’ve been up on Tolman and up on SK, we’ve played well against these good teams, it’s just the little breakdowns we have that are costing us. We need to minimize the mistakes right now so that at the end of the year you’re not making those mistakes.” Cumberland, which heads to Clas
Y sical Tuesday afternoon, opened the scoring in the 36th minute when Baker
s rocketed a shot off the crossbar. The rebound fell to Juliano Silva, who chested the ball down to his right foot for a goal.
Reed made five saves for the hosts. T