Following its 1-0 quarterfinal win against Clinton last week, the Bromfield boys soccer team won its semifinal Central Division 4 match against the Hopedale Blue Raiders 2-1 in a hard-fought, physical game played Nov. 11 at Shrewsbury High School.
Bromfield team Captain Pasha Sahin goes up against a Hopedale challenger in Bromfield’s 2-1 win to advance to MIAA Central Mass. Div. 4 finals. (Photos by Kent Boynton)
It was not an easy win for the Trojans, who found themselves down 1-0 at the half. Both Bromfield goals were scored in the final minutes of the game, the second following the ejection of a Blue Raider midfielder for unsportsmanlike conduct, leaving Hopedale with only 10 players for the remaining 13 minutes of play.
“Certainly these boys were resilient,” said Coach Alex Horne. They didn’t give up when they were down a goal and scoreless, he said. “We came in with an aggressive mindset. We just wanted to attack their back line and force their defense to make mistakes. If you do that so many times, you’re bound to find the back of the net eventually.”
The first half was a back-and-forth struggle for dominance. Bromfield junior attacker Dylan Winchell was the first to get off a shot on Hopedale’s goal, but the well-aimed ball was blocked by Hopedale’s Kirlos Babaway. Babaway returned the ball deep into Trojan territory, where following a near-successful Blue Raider attack on the net, Bromfield junior goalie Ethan Fitzsimmons made his first save of the day. It was a typical exchange, and both goalies had a busy afternoon. Fitzsimmons had 10 saves, and Babaway more than a dozen.
While the Trojans were on the attack for most of the first half with more than a dozen solid shots on goal, they were unable to get past Hopedale’s defenders and Babaway and sink a ball into the net. The Blue Raiders, meanwhile, used free kicks and throw-ins deep inside Bromfield territory to create scoring opportunities, setting up their only goal of the game. That goal came 23 minutes into the half when Hopedale’s Tyler Small fired the ball past Fitzsimmons on an assist by Hopedale junior Trevor Hibbert.
Bromfield’s Eli Fishbein (9) nails the winning goal with an assist from Will Armstrong (17) in the last minutes of play.
Both teams appeared newly energized as they returned to the field following the halftime break. With only 13 minutes remaining and following a series of unsuccessful attacks, Bromfield finally breached Hopedale’s defense. Trojan midfielder junior Alex Jorgensen brought the ball into Blue Raider territory and passed it to senior captain Will Armstrong. Armstrong passed to Jorgensen, who had moved in front of the goal. Jorgensen’s shot was blocked by Babaway, but Babaway’s block bounced the ball back to him, and he shot again. This time Jorgensen sent the ball into the upper left corner of the Hopedale net, evening the score and drawing loud cheers from his teammates and Bromfield fans.
Following the goal, Armstrong and a Hopedale defender were yellow-carded for unsportsmanlike conduct—trash-talking, according to a referee interviewed after the game. For the Hopedale player, it was his second yellow card of the day, and he was ejected from the game. Eight minutes later, with the game tied, Bromfield senior captain Marcos Lora sent the ball up to senior Eli Fishbein, who scored the winning goal with an assist from Armstrong.
With their 2-0 victory over Hopedale, the Trojans were headed this week to the MIAA Central Division 4 finals, where they were scheduled to play the fourth-seeded Littleton Tigers (13-4-1) at Whitcomb Middle School in Marlborough on Thursday, Nov. 14. The Trojans had faced the Tigers twice this season, beating them 2-0 at home and 4-1 away.
Erin Flynn is a Bromfield sophomore.
John Osborn contributed to this story.
