The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School varsity boys soccer team faced off against the Nantucket High School Whalers at McCarthy memorial field on Sunday, falling 1-0 in a gritty rivalry match.
The game on Sunday marked the grueling third game the Vineyard soccer squad played in three days, leaving the Island team battling exhaustion but still hunkering down and showing resilience.
The Whalers struck early, capitalizing on a defensive mistake by the Vineyarders. A poor defensive clearance in the opening minutes ricocheted into the Vineyarder net, considered to be an own goal, brought the Vineyarders to a 1-0 deficit and dropped the Vineyard’s momentum.
“[Nantucket] put a lot of pressure on and there was no communication from our midfield and our defense,” said head coach Rodrigo Honorato in a post game interview. “I think they both went to clear the ball and it hit our toe and it just went over our goalie and unfortunately, it was an own goal.”
Despite the sluggish start, the Vineyarder found their rhythm late in the first half. With five minutes remaining for the half-time break, the intensity of the match started to surge, and the Vineyarders rattled a shot from the slot off the Whalers crossbar, igniting the home crowd.
In the second half, the Vineyarders came out with some newfound momentum. Freshman Moses Thomson (No. 19) had a scoring opportunity after being granted a free kick from just outside the penalty box. The ball curved from right to left and forced a sprawling save from Nantucket’s goalkeeper. Not too long after, senior Joao Pedro De Oliveira (No. 10) ignited the crowd again after ringing the low left post with a shot that he had to fight hard for within the penalty box.
Coach Honorato partially attributed the loss to fatigue from the team’s demanding schedule, but also due to the Island team not playing their style of soccer.
“Three games back-to-back-to-back, it’s just too much for High School kids,” he said. “They’re not professionals; they need time to recover.”
“We have enough players on the bench, but there’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores and yesterday [against Collegiate Charter] we tried to get them to play a little bit more, but today it was war out there,” added Honorato.
Honorato noted that throughout the game, Nantucket controlled the pace.
“I don’t think we possessed at all, they controlled the game and majority of the game and we played their game,” said Honorato. “We played at their level and it was just really a kick and run game.”
In the coming weeks of practice Honorato said they plan to continue to focus on possession and ball control, especially in high intensity situations. Honorato is going to be bringing alumni from around the Island to scrimmage the young team to simulate those high pressure situations.
“We need to learn how to possess the ball while they’re putting pressure on us,” he said.
The Vineyard team’s main goal remains securing a playoff position, and for coach Honorato, he has a lot of faith in the determined and young squad who is currently 4-2 on the season.
“I’m not giving up on these boys,” said Honorato. “It’s one game at a time. We have to focus now on the next game and move forward. We have a whole season ahead of us.”
On Sunday, the girls varsity soccer and varsity field hockey teams also took on the Nantucket Whalers. Girls soccer won 3-1, and the field hockey team fell to the Whalers with a final tally of 3-0.