The St. John’s Prep soccer team brought out all the firepower on offense Monday evening, knocking off Catholic Conference foe Malden Catholic, 6-0, on the road. The Eagles came out fast and never looked back, rolling to the victory.
“We finally did what I knew we were capable of doing all year, and that was put 80 minutes of soccer together,” said St. John’s Prep coach Dave Crowell. “We’ve had some issues getting off to slow starts this year, so it was nice to see us come out and score early. We were up 3-0 in the first 20 minutes, and that’s something that hasn’t really happened this year, so that was a great way to start and we rode the momentum from there.”
Senior captain Evan Hannibal led the way for the Prep with a three-goal performance, while senior Gregory Pykett had one goal and one assist. Junior Ryder Vigsnes and junior Declan Kelley each scored one goal, while senior Andrew Vittiglio, senior Brendan Collins, senior Seamus O’Connor and sophomore Alex Borkland each had one assist. Senior goalkeeper Luke Surette notched the shutout in net.
“It was a total team effort out there,” said Crowell. “Everyone played, everyone contributed and that’s what you want to see.”
With the win, the Eagles remain undefeated on the season, now sitting at 4-0-2. The Prep has gotten by so far on its incredible defensive play, only giving up one goal over the course of the entire season to this point. Now, Crowell is happy that his team finally showed some offensive firepower in Monday’s game, and he’s hoping that the Eagles will continue that through the rest of the season.
“Our defense has been spectacular this year and it was again (Monday), but we’ve had issues scoring all season,” said Crowell. “We doubled our entire goal output for the season in this game, so we’ve really been having a tough time putting it in the net. Hopefully we can take this performance and use it to propel us forward and keep scoring goals.”
As the season begins to wind down, St. John’s Prep now gets ready for a rivalry matchup with Catholic Conference foe Xaverian Friday (5) on the road. The Eagles took down Xaverian in their first meeting earlier this year, a 1-0 win at Cronin Memorial Stadium.
“It’s always a battle when we go up against Xaverian,” said Crowell. “It was a 1-0 game last time around and we scored a late goal to get the win, so we’ll be expecting more of the same come Friday. But if we can play the way we played (Monday), I really like our chances.”
