Mount uses defense to earn victory
Maddalena records 3rd shutout in last 4 games
WOONSOCKET — The Mount St. Charles boys soccer team has made its home field a difficult place to visit for opponents who are used to playing on large, FieldTurf surfaces where bounces are predictable and there’s more room to move.
After allowing a pair of goals to East Greenwich in their lone home defeat in early September, senior goalie Jacob Maddalena and the Mounties simply haven’t allowed goals at home. Monday, visiting Westerly outplayed the Mounties for long stretches of the first half, but Mount was resolute in its own box.
Senior forward Tommy Burke scored a goal 19 minutes into the contest and that proved to be the game-winning effort because, for the third time in the last four home games, the Mounties earned a shutout, as they won 1-0.
“It’s certainty not pretty, but we’ll take the wins when we can,” Mount first-year coach Phil Towler said. “That was our ninth win and I don’t think anyone in this group expected to have nine at this point, so we keep finding ways to get wins. All the credit goes to these guys because they show up every game and every day and finding a way to get a win.
“This is awesome,” Burke said about a team that won just two games last season. “We’re really focused on possession and playing with each other. Our young coach has been fantastic. He’s out there playing the game with us and he’s enthusiastic and has us thinking about the game and what our next move is to help us get better.”
Mount St. Charles (9-4-1 Division II) is still in contention to earn a bye into the quarterfinals, but to do so they will need to beat struggling Prout on Wednesday and then third-place Mt. Hope in the regular-season finale Thursday on Logee Street.
The Mounties will surely give the Huskies a test on their home field, but the challenge for Towler is to develop a strategy that will make the Mounties successful on FieldTurf, which they will have to play on in a potential semifinal contest in early November.
“Whenever you go away from home and you’re not playing on your home field it’s a little tougher,” Towler said. “The semifinals will be on a bigger turf field, we’ll have to find a way to do it. We’ll match up with whoever we’re playing against, but once you get in those situations, it’s a one-off game and it’s about who shows up on that day to play.”
Westerly (5-7-2 Division II) was in good position to host a home quarterfinal two weeks ago, but the Bulldogs have earned just one point in their last four games headed into another long road trip to Bristol to face the Huskies Wednesday night. Goalie John Healey only needed to make three saves in the defeat.
The lone goal came in the 19th minute when a Maddalena punt was headed in the wrong direction by a Westerly central defender. Burke latched on to the ball and ripped a right-footed shot into the far corner of the net for the game’s only goal.
“I just picked up the ball and I had a lot of space, I took an extra touch into the space and shot it to the opposite corner of where the goalie was,” Burke said. “It just went right over the goalie’s head. It dipped in at the last second – it was good.”
The rest of the game was about Maddalena’s seven saves and the defense of the Mounties. Towler said he made a switch recently to sure up the wings at the expense of another forward. While the move has seen the Mounties score just three goals in the last four games, they’ve only allowed one goal since shipping five to Cranston East earlier in the month.
“The last three or four games have really been defensive stalemates and one of our guys having a little more heart or having the quality to finish like Tommy did today,” Towler said. “We certainly have work we need to do, but where we’re at right now and where we thought we’d be at this point, we’re very happy.”