White guides No. 5 Rebels to victory over Raiders
ccotter@ricentral.com
SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The Shea boys soccer team hoped to become the second Blackstone Valley team in three seasons to defeat South Kingstown in a road playoff game. The Raiders had played to a draw against the Rebels just two weeks ago, and looked to follow in Tolman’s footsteps in sending SK packing early.
Sometimes history repeats itself, but not this time. A flurry of goals in the first 18 minutes was enough to end the Raiders season. Their comeback attempt in the second half was admirable but well short, as they lost 3-1.
“We played harder in the second half,” Shea head coach Pierre Ridore. “We let a bunch of easy goals in [in the first half]. Players weren’t getting to rebounds, weren’t clearing easy balls. We paid for that.”
The Rebels avoided repeating their fate from two seasons ago by firing right out of the gate. Despite a game plan being installed by Ridore and Shea to constantly mark Sam White, the SK senior scored a howler of a goal in the fourth minute.
“I just think a lot of our guys were nervous to get going,” Ridore said. “We let [Sam White] shoot. We planned for him, we knew he had a good shot. Him scoring from 25 yards out [was disappointing]. One of the defenders has to get in front of him. We let him shoot, and he made a perfect shot.
“From there, our confidence went way down. They put in a few easy goals after that.”
White’s long-range shot was unsaveable, but the Rebels quickly added two soft goals that put the result out of reach before halftime. Papa Badiane scored on a loose ball off a corner kick in front of the net in the 12th minute, and White’s big leg again factored into the third SK goal.
The Raiders had no chance to mark White this time, as he was taking a free kick right inside the 50-yard line. The senior found sophomore star Wrenano Honeyghan, who had no trouble making it 3-0.
The frustrated Raiders earned a pair of yellow cards following the 3-0 deficit. After a halftime chat with Ridore, they came out and controlled the second half.
The lone goal of the evening for Shea came with 29 minutes still left to be played, but with the Rebels wasting time at every opportunity, those minutes dried up quickly.
“Second half, we played much harder,” Ridore said. “We just couldn’t get any more goals than that one.”
After a rough start to their season, the Raiders managed to show impressive growth down the stretch. Including their 1-1 draw against SK, they finished the regular season by earning points in each of their last four games. Another impressive draw came against No. 1 Tolman, and the Raiders outscored Smithfield and North Kingstown by a combined 9-2 in their final two wins of the year.