Scoring just part of it for Revere’s Bettero
The most prolific scorer in Revere High soccer history has a simple philosophy when it comes to putting the ball in the back of the net.
SOCCER NOTEBOOK
“With goals come wins,” said senior striker Carolina Bettero, a three-year captain for the Patriots girls squad. “Racking up goals is obviously fun but getting wins is the main objective. Goals just come with it.”
Bettero has clearly had a lot of fun in her four years at Revere. On Thursday, she achieved a rare milestone, scoring the 100th goal of her career in a 4-0 win over Malden. Bettero was at 99 after notching a pair the previous day against East Boston and got there with plenty to spare as she added No. 101 and 102 with a three-goal performance at home on Senior Day.
It’s been a consistent climb to the plateau for Bettero. She struck 55 times in her first two years with the Patriots, then buried 21 goals in just 10 games during the abbreviated Fall II season, giving her 76 going into her senior campaign.
“She has the skill, she has the speed, she knows soccer and has a good, solid midfield that can get her the ball,” said Revere coach Megan O’Donnell. “A lot of coaches have been doubleteaming her after the first two years and they are like, we know what she is, this is our fourth year playing her, and she still schools us.”
While Bettero said that soccer was part of the fabric growing up in a Brazilian household, she is the one carrying the flag for the sport in a family full of athletes. Her father and older sister were volleyball players, while her mother was a standout in handball.
Bettero is keenly aware that her main job for the Patriots is finishing, but she prides herself on being a complete player, honing her playmaking skills for when she shifts back to the midfield, and O’Donnell marvels at her unselfish, team-first attitude.
It’s that group dynamic that the three-sport star enjoys most about being on the pitch.
“In basketball, it’s easier to, not carry the team, but make your plays and do what you have to do, but in soccer you have 10 other girls on the field and you have to rely on every single one of those girls,” said Bettero. “You have to rely on each other to get to one goal.”
And Bettero’s theorem has proven true. With her goals, the wins have come.
In her freshman season, the Patriots qualified for the tournament for the first time since 2010. The next year, Revere made the jump back to the Greater Boston League from the Northeastern Conference and took home the league title while earning the top seed in Division 1 North at 14-1-2.
“Having her has definitely made the program more noticeable and made kids in the younger grades come out and want to play soccer because of how they have turned this program around,” said O’Donnell, who is in her ninth season as Patriots coach. ”My first couple years, we had it real
rough. We would get smoked.”
While there was no MIAA postseason for the Patriots to shoot for in Fall II, Bettero led Revere to the championship game of the GBL Cup in May, where it was edged 1-0 by Lynn Classical. The Patriots have guaranteed themselves a spot in the Div. 3 statewide tournament this fall with a 7-4-1 mark and three games remaining.
“With what this program used to be, it’s a complete shift in culture,” said Bettero. “I was talking about it to my mom and we had a thing our freshman year — put Revere soccer back on the map — and I feel like we have done that. Over the years, soccer has become a bigger sport at the school and it feels good to give more recognition to a sport that I love and many others love.”
In addition to her exploits on the soccer field, Bettero is a four-year varsity member of the Revere basketball team and a record-setter for the outdoor track squad, where she has put her tremendous athleticism on display in the heptathlon.
She is also an excellent student, carrying a 4.2 grade point average on a scale of 5, which could affect her future soccer plans as Bettero said she may opt to play club in college to better
focus on academics depending on what school she ultimately decides to attend.
“She’s a true leader, not only on the field but in the classroom as well,” said O’Donnell. ”Everyone looks up to her. She’s an all-around good kid that every teacher loves to have and you wish you had 100 more of her.”
100 Club
You don’t see too many 100-goal scorers in Massachusetts high school soccer, so to have two girls hit triple digits in close proximity is pretty remarkable.
Last Friday, Northeast Metro Tech senior Falyn Hunt joined the club in a 6-2 win over Notre Dame (Tyngsboro). She entered the contest three goals shy but erupted for a hat trick in the first half, putting away a feed from Briana Bocelli for No. 100.
“Falyn is the type of student athlete that everyone wants to see succeed in their dreams,” said Northeast Metro coach Sarah Pierce. “She has a huge passion for soccer and wants to share that love with her younger teammates. She is always encouraging and leading the team as a humble captain and an incredible role model that I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to coach.
Mapping out the postseason
If the MIAA stays on it’s once per week schedule of releasing the ratings that will determine the seedings for the inaugural statewide tournament, there should just be one more soccer update before the draws are revealed as the cutoff date is Sunday, Oct. 31 and the seeding meeting the following day.
There are some interesting trends to be gleaned from the last round of ratings to be revealed.
With five divisions in both the boys and girls tournaments, 10 teams will receive No 1 seeds. Of those 10, nine would currently come from the former South and West sections, with the South claiming the top two seeds in the highest two divisions and the West five of the six in the bottom three, with the Central claiming the other.
If you extrapolate it out to the top four — a crucial cutoff to earn as many as three home games before the tournament moves to neutral sites in state semifinals — the disparity becomes more dramatic. Of the 40 teams, 17 are former West teams and 16 from the South, as opposed to just four from the central and three from the North.