2010 St. Thomas Aquinas Boys Soccer
Portsmouth Game 2
Article from Portsmouth Herald
DOVER A lopsided loss can sometimes have a lingering negative effect on a team. But for the St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys soccer team, a 5-0 loss to Coe-Brown in the second game of the season did nothing but inspire the Saints.
St. Thomas earned its fifth straight win since that loss with a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth in Division II action on Tuesday afternoon. The Saints (6-1) have outscored their opponents 16-1 during the streak, including the last four by shutout.
Rye's Jeff King scored a goal in each half for the Saints, as Jonathan Nartiff and Eddie Conroy picked up the assists.
"I know that Coe-Brown loss knocked some sense into them," St. Thomas coach Scott Suleski said. "I think a lot of these kids got used to the idea that teams are going to come out and just hand you the win. This isn't Class I anymore. This is Division II, and there are new teams and new players, and there isn't that fear in teams like there was two years ago when we were running up scores on everybody."
Portsmouth coach Martin Carter thinks his team has made a lot of strides since opening the season with a 3-1 loss to the Saints in Portsmouth. The young Clippers made some pushes toward the goal in the second half but couldn't break through the St. Thomas defense. Portsmouth (1-6-1) has scored seven goals in eight games, with five of them coming in a 5-0 win over Manchester West on Sept. 10.
"It was some of the best soccer we've played all season, but obviously not the result we wanted," Carter said. "I'm pleased with the way we played. We moved the ball around nicely, had possession. All year long we've been struggling to possess the ball in the final third (of the field) and I thought we did that well today."
With eight minutes left in a scoreless first half, King took a pass from Nartiff and kicked the ball past Portsmouth goaltender Jacob Lehoux (eight saves) for a 1-0 St. Thomas lead.
"Nartiff just gave me a little bloop to my feet, which I was able to settle, and I had four defenders around me," King said. "Out of nowhere, I got hit from behind and got checked, and that actually gave me the momentum to get past the last defender and kick it through."
Portsmouth put more pressure on the Saints in the second half, but the St. Thomas defense held the Clippers in check. King scored his second goal on an assist from Conroy with 24 minutes left in the game.
Suleski said the Clippers have improved a lot since the season's opening game and gave his team a good test.
"Portsmouth is not a team that can be judged by their record they're a much better team than their record shows," Suleski said. "I thought we did well in controlling the game in the beginning, but in the second half Portsmouth started gaining control and the shots were even in the second half. There were a couple of times where they didn't get the shot off, but they were pressuring."
Portsmouth will look for its second win at home Friday against Pelham. St. Thomas hopes to continue its roll on Friday at Trinity.
"We're coming together as a team and we're playing much better now than we did at the beginning of the season," King said. "It takes time to get the chemistry together as a team, but we're doing well."
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