TIGERS, PRIDE EARN WINS
BVP reaches playoffs for first time
PAWTUCKET – Call it a banner Wednesday for Blackstone Valley Prep.
For the first time in school history, the Pride girls soccer team landed a playoff bid, that courtesy of a thrilling – not to mention controversial – 3-2 victory over Shea at Max Read Field.
The clinching goal came on junior Rachele Segura’s penalty kick with 14:46 remaining in regulation. It also put an end to what had been a furious Raiders’ surge before that.
“This is our third season as an Interscholastic League team, and it feels awesome to be going to the postseason,” noted head coach Matt Brown, whose club now stands at 6-3-2 in Division III action. “I’m so proud of these girls and how hard they worked. At the beginning of the season, we set our standards very high; the first goal was to make the playoffs, and we were able to accomplish it. That’s because they all have worked very hard.”
Segura finished with two goals, though the second didn’t sit well with veteran Shea High coach Yianiss Noel.
On the play, a Pride player went down inside the penalty box on the Shea side of the field, and an official quickly called a foul, which always dictates a penalty shot. Shea felt the BVP forward had tripped, others claimed a defender had knocked her off balance.
“When we do a two-man (officiating) system, and there’s a team deep in a zone, there’s one person on the far side and one close to the action,” Noel described. “My problem with it was that the ref on the close side didn’t call the foul when he was five yards away, it was the guy farther away from the play.
“I thought she fell, first of all,” he added. “My question is why was that ref so anxious to make a call when he was 50 yards from the action. That’s what frustrates me.”
With the loss, the Raiders fell to 5-6-0, so are still chasing that elusive postseason berth themselves.
BVP controlled most of the initial half, and junior Victoria Jakubiak made it show dividends when she scored an unassisted goal at the 14:30 mark.
Approximately 18 minutes later, junior Jayde Fernandes looked to knot it when she was awarded a 28yard free kick from the left side. She launched a beautiful curving shot, but it sailed just over the crossbar.
With just over three minutes to play before intermission, junior Sole Miranda rapped a crossing pass to Segura, and she punched the shot just inside the left post to make it 2-0.
After Noel’s halftime speech, Shea came out more inspired in the final session; a mere 5:30 after the start of play, Fernandes gained possession on the right side of the field and delivered a right-to-left feed to classmate Daisy Tavares. She promptly onetimed her try, call it a soft pitch shot, past sophomore keeper Toluwani Ad- elani (16 saves) to make it 2-1.
The Raiders actually knotted it 6:10 later. Sophomore Bitenga Namusse smoked a lengthy liner off the left post, and the ball then ping-ponged around before it ended back on Namusse’s foot. She quickly planted it past Adelani for the 2-2 deadlock.
All of that came to an end when Segura converted her penalty kick.
Still, it looked like the Raiders had a chance to pull off a miracle tie as time ran down in regulation. With just ticks left, Fernandes ripped a 47-yard rope directly off the crossbar, and a teammate was there for the rebound, but that’s when the three shrills signifying the end of the game sounded.
“I thought coming into the second half that my girls were a little too comfortable with that 2-0 lead,” Brown said. “I also knew Shea was hungry, but we were able to persevere and get the win.”
Offered Noel: “I figured we’d play better in the second half because we had the wind advantage, and our backs were to the sun. We scored two pretty goals and got right back into it … You know, we’ve had a lot of close games – 2-1, 1-0, 3-2 – that haven’t gone our way.
“Hopefully, starting now and by the time the playoffs start, we’ll begin playing better, stop making the mistakes we’re making now.”