Pride shines
BVP uses two goals from Miranda to earn first D-III playoff win
The BVP girls’ soccer team made history with ITS fiRST-EVER D-III PLAYOFF VICTORY, BEATING DAVIES BY A 2-1 COUNT.
CUMBERLAND — The Blackstone Valley Prep girls soccer team’s opening play of Wednesday’s Division III preliminary round contest against rival Davies Tech looked like something the Pride had been practicing since the Patriots eliminated them in last season’s Division III playoffs.
The Pride, through oneand two-touch passes, needed just 13 seconds to go from the kickoff to senior forward Sole Miranda ripping a low shot past Davies goalie Alyanah Rubio.
“We didn’t think we’d score in the first 30 seconds, but we’ll take it,” BVP coach Steve DaRosa said. “We don’t really set plans to start the game, but that start is something we’ve been
talking about all year. What we’ve been practice all year and what we’ve talked about – we went inside and then outside and then a cross in the box. It’s almost like we drew it up, but we worked out.”
Miranda, the Pride’s leading scorer this season, doubled the lead just before halftime, and that’s when the No. 9 Patriots started playing the type of soccer that earned them a playoff berth. Senior forward Ivelisse Martinez cut the deficit in half early in the second half, forcing the Pride to hang on for the final 31 minutes.
Junior goalie Toluwabi Adelani made a couple of impressive saves in the second half to deny Martinez and finished the afternoon with six saves to earn the program its first playoff victory, a 2-1 conquest of the Patriots.
“We switched our formation in the second half and went to a 3-4-3 to get [Martinez] some help up front,” Davies assistant coach Kevin DosSantos said. “That seemed to work a little bit, but the big thing that hurt us coming into the playoffs was that we lost four girls who would’ve played in this game through injury. We gained two kids, but we lost a few through practice and over the weekend.”
The Pride’s reward
for
earning
their
first playoff victory? A trip to the East Bay to take on defending Division III champion and top-seeded Tiverton Saturday night at 6 o’clock. In the teams’ lone regular-season meeting, Mariah Ramos scored four goals and two other Tigers added a pair of goals in a 9-0 victory.
“This was our first playoff win for boys our girls, so this is a good memory for them to have to claim that they were the first ones,” DaRosa said. “What they do really well is possess the ball and play it inside and outside. We have to contain their really good players like [Martinez] in this game. Tiverton has a few of those girls on their team, so we have to be ready. We’re underdogs, clearly. We’ll see what happens.”
It could be a busy day for Pride sophomore midfielder Lucy Noris. Noris is scheduled to compete in the state cross country championship at 1 p.m. on Saturday and she isn’t there just to make up the numbers. Noris finished second in Class C and has a chance to become the Pride’s first first-team all-stater.
The Patriots, who were smarting from a 3-2 home loss to the Pride in the regular season, simply weren’t ready for BVP’s speed and ball movement in the first 10 seconds. Miranda took a pass from sophomore O’Livia Lopes and fired a low shot to the right of Rubio to give her team a lead it would never relinquish.
“Right off the bat, I knew they were going
Photo by Ernest A. Brown to put pressure on us, so I told the girls that we can’t give up that early goal like we did,” DosSantos said.
The Patriots settled into the game after the goal, but a defensive lapse allowed Miranda in alone on Rubio. Leissa Medina broke the Patriots’ offside trap with a through ball to Miranda, who slotted a shot into the net to double the lead with six minutes left in the half. It was the second time this season Miranda scored twice against the Pats.
After failing to earn a corner kick or properly testing Adelani in the first half, the Patriots got back into the game eight minutes into the second half. A Pride defender committed the cardinal sin in soccer – playing the ball aimlessly in the defensive third – and Mar
Photo by Ernest A. Brown tinez took advantage by latching on to the loose ball and ripping a left-footed shot into the net.
Both teams had chances to change the complexion of the game over the next 15 minutes, but Martinez was denied by Adelani at one end, while Miranda and senior Rachele Segura failed to hit the target after creating space for a scoring chance in the box.
“We’re definitely working on finishing [Thursday] in practice, but our defense and midfield worked hard to keep the lead,” DaRosa said. “We like to make it hard on ourselves sometimes.”