N.S. advances in playoffs
Northmen defeat Johnston In first round battle
NORTH SMITHFIELD – After the new-look North Smithfield girls soccer team was overwhelmed in its first two Division II contests of the season, coach John Pastore wondered if the Northmen would win a game this season.
Six weeks later and the Northmen not only won a game – they won a playoff game. After twice falling behind No. 9 Johnston Thursday afternoon, the No. 8 Northmen used a pair of goals from senior forward Meredith Parsons and a game-winning goal from Thao Nguyen in a 4-3 D-II preliminary-round victory.
“I couldn’t be any more proud of how far they’ve come,” Pastore said. “I didn’t think we’d win a game this year. What they’ve done is 100 percent a tribute to the effort and hard work of these girls.
“Today, I wasn’t confident until the ref blew the final whistle, but that’s not because of our girls. They’ve been great all season.”
“We started off the year rough, but we’re good now,” senior captain Sydney Thepngone said. “We learned how to talk more and move and pass the ball more. I took a little bit of adjusting for this team after we graduated eight seniors.”
North Smithfield (8-4-5 Division II) will face its toughest test of the season in the quarterfinals tomorrow at 1 p.m. against No. 1 Pilgrim in Warwick. The Patriots scored six goals against the Northmen in early September, but the Patriots were tested late in the season when they escaped Mount St. Charles with a 2-1 victory.
Pastore knows his team will go into the game as a heavy underdog.
“I’m going to be blunt – if Pilgrim wasn’t in this division any team in the playoffs could win the title,” Pastore said. “Pilgrim being in here is a joke. They’re far superior than every other team. We’re going to give them a handful. We’re going to play them different than they we should play. We’re going to go for it because we have nothing to lose.”
Johnston, which dropped a 4-1 decision the last time they came up I-295 to visit the Northmen, needed just two minutes to open the scoring. After a mistake by the Northmen in their defensive third, Robbins picked up the ball and slotted a shot past senior goalie Alyssa Naradowy.
It took the Northmen all of five minutes to answer when freshman Jackie deRonde’s corner kick was headed past Haley Gaunt by midfielder Skylah Sullivan.
A pair of dubious penalty calls allowed each team’s top scorer to find the net. First, in the 10th minute, Johnston was awarded a penalty for a dangerous play and Robbins scored her second. Six minutes later, Gaunt was adjudged to have fouled Parsons and the senior scored to even the game at 2.
North Smithfield took its first lead two minutes later when Madison Reynolds took a pass from freshman Sadie Crozier and played a ball over the Johnston defense. Parsons ran on to the ball and scored her second goal.
“I liked our resolve and I liked that it didn’t get to them when we fell behind,” Pastore said. “They knew what they had to do. We knew their strength was their midfield and [Robbins] up top, it’s no secret. We thought we could exploit their back four and their keeper. We wanted to keep pressure on them and play balls over the top. We just need to keep taking shots.”
Crozier helped extend the lead to two goals with two minutes left in the first half when she swung in a cross from the left side that was redirected into the net by Nguyen.
North Smithfield had chances to extend the lead to three goals, but Robbins cut the deficit to just one with eight minutes left in the contest when she hammered a long-range right-footed shot into the corner of the goal.
The Northmen, who twice this season threw away two-goal leads at home, controlled the final five minutes to advance to the quarterfinals.
“We pulled out a really good win,” Thepngone said. “I don’t think I have a voice anymore because I was talking so much.”