Eager to keep Rockin
Hopes high for young Feehan
A year removed from going 20-1 and advancing to the Division 1 South soccer semifinals before a 1-0 loss to eventual state champion Needham, the Bishop Feehan girls are right back to their winning ways in 2016, with sights set on another deep state tournament run.
“We graduated 15 seniors,” said Feehan coach Phil Silva following Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Martha’s Vineyard, one of six wins by the Shamrocks to start the year, “but we returned three senior captains who have been important contributors to varsity since freshman year and also a number of talented underclassmen.”
Having already played in numerous meaningful games the past three seasons — Bishop Feehan has been to back-to-back sectional semifinals after advancing to the sectional final in 2013 — captains Enisa Amedio, Bailey Conti and Kate McCarthy, as well as fellow senior Mary Rourke, have eased into leadership roles that will be counted on to continue a string of recent success matched by just a handful of other programs in the state.
“They have to lead the team because besides them, we are young,” Silva said. “It has been up to them to show the rest of the team the way. They have all been in tough games the last three years and they all know what it takes to be successful.”
With a new group comes new challenges, not the least of which is learning to play at the high level Silva and his staff have come to expect in his eight years at the helm.
“We had a great keeper and attacking players graduate, so we have to play a little different this year,” Silva noted, referencing goalie Shelby Hogan, now playing for Providence College. “We should be in a lot of tight games against good teams, and we are going to have to be willing to play any style to get a win.
“The last couple of years the team was led by juniors and seniors, and last year’s class may have been the deepest I’ve ever had here at Feehan. It’s a matter of working new kids in and making sure they are ready to play at the level we need them to play.”
Sophomores Ainsley Jolin and Fiona Kane, plus junior Catherine Mulligan are a few of the newer faces expected to make an immediate impact for a team lying in the apparent weeds when it comes to early favorites to come out of the toughest section in the state.
“Teams like Whitman-Hanson, Natick, North Attleboro and Oliver Ames are the ones people are picking to win the section, so we are just going to do our job on a daily basis and take it one game at a time,” Silva said. “We need to make sure we win our league (Eastern Athletic Conference) and that we are peaking at the right time of year. We’ve had some success getting deep in the tournament and we still haven’t achieved the ultimate goal of winning a sectional championship, but that is what we strive to do every year.”
Victory on high
For those who say you can never go home again, first-year Haverhill boys coach Charlie Roche would probably beg to differ.
A 2009 graduate who helped lead the Hillies to a three-year record of 43-11-4, the former New Hampshire standout and two-time America East All-Academic team selection was hired before the season to replace longtime coach John Coppola.
Roche’s Hillies, who went 7-11-4 last year, opened 1-3-1. That was before picking up the first signature win of his tenure, however, with last Tuesday’s 1-0 blanking of previously unbeaten Merrimack Valley Conference Large rival North Andover.
Sophomore Alex Melo scored the eventual gamewinning goal off an assist from Ryan Shaut, and junior goalie John Vets recorded seven saves.
“Right when this job opened up I went for it,” said Roche, also a teacher at his alma mater. “We started out slow with two losses, but we had been working hard since the preseason and it has been a consistent thing with how hard these kids have been working.”
“We kind of found something that worked for us against Malden (a 0-0 tie leading into the North Andover tilt) and we went with that against North Andover. Hopefully we can build off this win and keep going.”
The victory closed the book on Haverhill’s 10game losing streak to the Scarlet Knights, a streak that began following a 4-0 Hillies victory by Roche’s 2007 team.
Looking forward, the Hillies will lean heavily on Shaut and fellow seniors Nichollas Guimaraes, Owen Bourdon and juniors Colton Smith and Jon Chasse to carry the load for a team that has state tournament aspirations.
“Once we can figure out how to play defense with a little more discipline as a team, I think that should bring us to the next level,” said Roche.