The Bromfield Trojans shut out the No. 7 seed Tahanto Regional High School Stags 5-0 Wednesday night, Nov. 9, to advance to the next round of this year’s state tournament.
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 5 round-of-16 match was played under lights at Assabet Valley Regional Vocational Tech High School in Marlborough, and the Trojans wasted no time in setting the game’s tempo.
First to score—three minutes into the game—was Cameron Avola on a cross by co-captain Ryan Multy. Ten minutes later, McNulty fired another shot at Tahanto’s sophomore goalie Cam Wester, who blocked it only to have the rebound tapped into the right side of the net by Brendan Listzwan.
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Amlyl AitDowd (10) is too quick for a Tahanto defender during Bromfield’s 5-0 win. (Photo by Kent Boynton)
Following a Tahanto timeout, the game settled into a defensive battle between the two teams. Bromfield, the faster of the two, pressured the Stags for the remaining 15 minutes of the half but was unable to score on any of several direct kicks and shots on goal. Credit goes to Tahanto goalie Wester who had more than a dozen saves. Coach Alex Horne called one timeout to rally his team, but at halftime the score remained 2-0 Bromfield.
A quarter moon hung in the clear night sky and the temperature had dipped below 55 degrees as a more physical second half got underway. “Clean it up,” Horne warned from the sidelines, but penalty kicks for both sides accumulated, and one player from each team was yellow-carded before the match ended.
At 18 minutes into the half, Bromfield cracked open Tahanto’s defense once again. William Conners scored on a corner kick by McNulty. Then, barely a minute later, counterattacking from the left, Tafera Vera leapt over Tahanto’s Wester, who had dived to block him, and tapped the ball into the net for a fourth goal. With 12 minutes remaining, Listzwan scored Bromfield’s final goal, assisted this time by Conners.
Senior co-captain and defender Geraghty Vellante said there had been plenty of pressure from Tahanto throughout the game. “They’re a very solid passing team and that created a little bit of questioning in our backline … and some gaps they really exploited. Once we started to get our confidence back, we were able to regain control, but they did well to find the places that we weren’t.” Fellow co-captain McNulty said the team needed to work on reducing fouls, a recurring problem all season. “We make other teams’ offenses,” he said. Fifty percent of the pressure in Tuesday’s game came from free kicks awarded Tahanto, he said.
The team now moves to the next stage of the MIAA Division 5 tournament, a round-of-eight elimination Saturday, Nov. 13, when Bromfield will play the No. 8 Mount Greylock Regional High School Mounties of Williamstown. The Mounties beat No. 24 St. Joseph Prep of Boston 2-1 in double overtime at a Division 5 round-of-16 game Tuesday night.
As the number one Division 5 team, Bromfield got to choose a field close to home; for Mt. Greylock, getting to the game will be a two-hour bus ride. Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, 215 Fitchburg St., Marlborough.
