Saints earn spot in first D-III final
St. Raphael overcomes last-second tying goal
JOHNSTON – At the end of regulation, St. Raphael Academy head coach Frank Balcarcel couldn’t help but think, “Not again.”
His Saints had all but nailed down a thrilling victory over rival Ponaganset High in a Division III semifinal at Johnston’s Major Joseph M. Polisena Stadium on Wednesday night after junior Cano Morales ripped home a goal with only 3:41 left.
They seemed destined to clinch until disaster struck. With about five ticks remaining, PHS senior standout Evan Hallberg crushed a desperation, 56-yard floater straight toward the cage, and a flock of players leaped in front of SRA sophomore keeper Spencer Hsu.
One block, one catch, one save, and it’s over.
But no. Apparently, senior Curtis Briggs jumped the highest, using his head to whack the ball into the netting to knot it at 1-1 – with two seconds remaining. (The scoreboard read: “0:01.0”).
The crowd of nearly 300 in the stands erupted, while Balcarcel’s bunch merely trudged back to the team bench to prepare for two five-minute overtime periods.
“With just a few seconds left, what do you think they’re going to do?” Balcarcel asked no one in particular. “The kid (Hallberg) bombed one in, and our guys just stood there looking at the clock, thinking, ‘Is it over?’ Aheader happens so fast.”
Balcarcel’s first thought: His club would suffer the same fate it had two years ago, when it lost to Scituate in the quarterfinals – via penalty kicks – and took the same type defeat to Pilgrim last fall.
There nevertheless was no such bad luck on this night, as the Saints succeeded on all five PKs after two drama-less OT sessions to snag a stunning 2-1 triumph.
For SRA, the tourney’s No. 7 seed, it was a second straight tripleOT upset in five days. It edged No. 2 Pilgrim, then third-ranked Ponaganset, which closed its campaign at 11-3-4.
“Do I really have to to say anything?” Balcarcel laughed after his squad not only improved to 11-3-5 overall but also gained a berth in the D-III championship game against Cranston East; that’s slated for 4 p.m., tomorrow at Rhode Island College.
“I can honestly say I’m just happy to be in the finals,” he added. “I guess the third time is the charm. I was thinking after our (2-1 overtime) win over Pilgrim (last Saturday) that was enough, that I could say then we had a very successful season and accomplished what we set out to do. I was feeling good, but then we won this.
“Now we have to revamp our plans, our goals.”
Balcarcel threw a wrinkle at the Chieftains at the start of the shootoutphase. Instead of remaining with Hsu, he opted to replace him with fellow sophomore Andrew Silva.
“We’ve been practicing PKs all week just in case it came to that, and we actually had a competition among our three goalies,” Balcarcel explained. “Andrew happened to stop the most in practice. Plus, he was our goalie when we played in the Division III JV championship game against Davies last week, and he stopped two PKs.
“We always knew it was a good possibility (a shootout), though it never should have come to that.”
In a meeting with officials prior to the PK phase, senior captain Brady Thibault won both coin tosses, so he chose the left side (from the press box vantage point) and to kick first.
Junior Aaron Flynn drove a grounder past senior netinder Devon Atkinson, but Ty Parrillo did the samr to Hsu. Thibault drilled a low shot inside the left post, yet senior Tyler Conde ripped a liner past Hsu to tie it at 2-2.
Saints’ junior Jeff Codman parlayed a ground attempt by Atkinson, and the next shot – by Hallberg, arguably the most talented player in the state – proved pivotal. He smoked a ground shot to Silva’s left, and the keeper’s guess proved accurate. He made a sterling stop, leaving Hallberg with his hands on his head.
Junior Max Rodriguez then scored for SRA to make it 4-2, though senior Kenny Desrosiers sliced the deficit with a tally into the upper right corner.
In the end, Cardona scorched a low liner at Atkinson, who actually got his hands on it, but it trickled inside the left post to seal it.
“It all comes down to practice,” Silva shrugged. “I just read the hips and hope to God that I guess correctly.”
When asked if he can believe he stopped a shot by the same young man who forced the OT in the first place, he began to show a bit of emotion. “It’s unbelievable. I’m stunned, but so happy.”
Nothing much happened in the opening half, though the Chieftains controlled most of the 40 minutes, but still only outshot the Saints, 3-1.
Ponaganset also had an 8-3 margin in the second stanza, though SRA began to gain some momentum as the half wore on. The lower seed finally broke through with 3:41 left; Cardona had maintained possession deep down the right side of the turf, dribbled in, then sent a perfect cross to Morales, who smoked a curler past a diving Atkinson.
That only set up Hallberg’s launch and Briggs’ finish.
“When they scored on the header, we were in shock; we were thinking, ‘How could we let that happen?” said the senior Thibault, the only player who has spent all four years in the program and knows all about postseason disappointment. “It was like something you’d see in a movie, but we needed to get our heads back into it.
“We got rid of the bad feeling and started thinking about what it’d take to win,” he continued. “It feels so good, and it’s about time! We lost in PKs two straight years, so we had to redeem ourselves. I think we did that here.
“Do I believe what just happened? Honestly? Not yet.”
St. Raphael 0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 1 – 2 Ponaganset 0 – 1 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 1 First half; No scoring. Second half: SRA – Cano Morales (Edgardo Cardona) 76:19; P – Curtis Briggs (Evan Hallberg) 79:58. First OT: No scoring. Second OT: No scoring. Shootout: SRA scoring (in order) – Aaron Flynn, Brady Thibault, Jeff Codman, Max Rodriguez-Cepparo, Cardona; Ponaganset scoring – Ty Parrillo, Tyler Conde, Kenny Desrosiers. Shots on goal: St. Raphael 1-3-1-1-5 – 11, Ponaganset 3-8-0-0-4 – 15. Goalie saves: Spencer Hsu (SRA) 10, Andrew Silva (SRA) 1, Devon Atkinson (P) 5.