PEABODY — In what should be expected out of a typical rivalry game between the St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick boys soccer teams, the two sides battled it out for 80 minutes before eventually ending in a 2-2 draw Monday evening at Donaldson Stadium.
“It’s always great when you get two Catholic Central League rivals together like this, you’re always going to get a good game no matter what,” said St. Mary’s coach Mike D’Agostino. “We had a lot of opportunities and we played really well on offense, so there are a lot of positives we can take from this one.”
“You always get up for this game,” Fenwick coach Tony Enos said of the rivalry. “Everyone seems to play harder and guys seem to want it more, and that makes for great soccer games. We played well overall out there, as did St. Mary’s, and we battled it out to the end.”
Fenwick got a goal from Ryan Noci in the draw and also benefited from an own goal. Kieron Murray, Aidan Dwyer and goalkeeper Liam Foley also played well in the draw.
St. Mary’s got goals from Aidan Sullivan and Jackson Nickolau, while Eduardo Toranzo had one assist.
After initially remaining scoreless through the first 12 minutes of play, the Crusaders were able to jump on the board thanks to an own goal on the part of St. Mary’s. Fenwick moved the ball into the offensive zone, with the ball eventually finding the foot of Ryan Morgenstern. After Morgenstern sent a cross into the box, the ball took a bad bounce off a St. Mary’s player and found its way into the back of the net to give Fenwick a 1-0 lead.
But the Spartans wouldn’t go away. With a little more than 12 minutes to play in the second quarter, Sullivan tied the score at 1-1 with a goal. Just 20 seconds later, Nickolau capitalized on a loose ball and knocked home a rebound to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead.
“After the first quarter, I really laid into the guys and said we needed to step it up in the second,” said D’Agostino. “It seemed to work, because the guys really started pushing the pace in the second and it turned into quite a few opportunities for us. That was what we needed at that time.”
The score remained there until the final minute of the third quarter, when Noci blasted a shot just over St. Mary’s goalkeeper Jacob Guarino’s hands from just inside 30 yards away to knot the score at 2-2.
“That was certainly a key point in the game, and it validated that the adjustments we made at halftime were working,” said Enos. “The guys were really excited about that one.”
From there, the two teams battled back and forth for a chance to score the game winner. But eventually the two sides ran out of time, and the rivals had to settle for the draw.
Fenwick (5-1-1) is back in action Wednesday (4) on the road at Austin Prep.
St. Mary’s (2-4-1) will travel to Arlington Catholic Wednesday (3:30).
“We just want to take the positives from this game and move on,” said D’Agostino. “We’ve played really solid defensively in the early part of the year, and the offense was much better (Monday). Now it’s about continuing to play well in both areas and try to put together a full game.”