Published: 11/2/2022 9:39:08 PM
Modified: 11/2/2022 9:39:15 PM
ORFORD — As the Rivendell Academy boys soccer team kept pounding away at the net without a goal to show for it, Raptors coach Kevin Brooker yelled out, “Keep shooting! Just like Iverson!”
“Allen Iverson was the best,” Brooker said, referring to the basketball Hall of Famer. “That guy would go 0-for-100, he didn’t care. He just kept jacking stuff up until he broke out of it. I was like, ‘Play like Iverson.’ ”
It was oddly fitting that in a game where Rivendell could have easily scored five or six times, the one goal the Raptors did knock in Wednesday came on a long free kick that bounced over the Twinfield/Cabot goalkeeper’s head and was redirected into the net. That was enough for the top seed in the VPA Division IV playoffs to defeat the No. 4 seed Trojans, 1-0, and advance to the title game for a second straight year.
The teams spent the early part of the first half feeling each other out, but both sides generated plenty of scoring chances as halftime approached. Rivendell junior goalkeeper Carter Bacon made a nifty save on Franklin Castillo’s strong shot in the 19th minute, and two minutes later Bacon came too far off his line and nearly cost the Raptors a goal before eighth grader Javin Welch came to the rescue and kept the ball out.
Rivendell’s biggest first-half threat came in the 28th minute, when sophomore Will Knowles’ shot from point-blank range was saved by Twinfield/Cabot goalkeeper Neil Alexander, who had a stellar day. The Raptors (14-1-0) turned the pressure up further early in the second half, with senior Josiah Welch having one shot denied by Alexander, a hard free kick just clear the crossbar and another shot strike the left post.
“You have to just embrace discomfort,” Brooker said. “The game should have been 10-0. But you can get frustrated by that, or you can focus on what we can control, and the things we can’t control, just let it go.”
In the 54th minute, Rivendell finally struck. Senior Harry Molesworth sent in a free kick from just beyond midfield that Alexander misjudged, and after a high bounce over the keeper’s head, senior Derek Vogelien poked the ball home to put the hosts in front.
Once they got the lead, the Raptors played things very defensively. The Trojans had their chances to equalize, the best coming in the 61st minute when Bacon deflected a shot over the line for a corner kick. A Twinfield player got a head on the corner, but the ball sailed just right of the net.
“At any level, winning soccer games requires luck,” Brooker said. “We had a lot of bad luck putting them off the posts, and then the soccer gods smiled on us and we got a little bit of luck and got a fluky goal. It wasn’t unearned. It wasn’t like we got no shots on net. It was a matter of time.”
Rivendell took 18 shots to the Trojans’ 13 despite Twinfield’s 5-2 edge in corner kicks. Bacon made nine saves.
The Raptors, who haven’t lost since the season-opener against Thetford, will face No. 2 seed Winooski in Saturday’s championship game at Applejack Stadium in Manchester, Vt. Last fall at the same venue, the Raptors suffered a 3-2 defeat to Mount St. Joseph, but with nine new starters, the makeup of this year’s team is quite different.
“Most people never get to a final once,” Brooker said. “These (returners) are going in twice. A lot of the pressure is off. They’re going in to play with joy. If they’re going to get us, they’re going to beat us.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.