PEABODY — The Peabody boys soccer team turned a close game into a blowout Thursday afternoon, scoring four unanswered goals in the second half to pull away from Bishop Fenwick in a cross-town battle at Donaldson Stadium.
One of the big keys to the win for Peabody was a switch in its formation, changing from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 formation with three strikers up front to put more pressure on Fenwick.
“We just hadn’t been generating any offense so we thought it would be good to switch things up,” said Peabody coach Stan McKeen. “Having those three strikers up front really changed things and allowed us to put a lot of pressure on them, and we got a lot of scoring opportunities out of it.”
It paid off, as Victor Maciel led the Peabody offensive attack with a hat trick.
“I’ve been waiting for this kind of a game out of Victor,” said McKeen. “He’s been a little sick with a cold recently, but he really came to play in this one.”
Nathan Braz scored two goals in the win for the Tanners, while Marc Ortiz and Frayluis Almonte each scored one goal. Kyle Lobao, Matthew Calver and Hugo Coutinho each added one assist, while Michael Balke and Nick Soper played well on the defensive end.
On the Fenwick side, Ryan Noci had one goal and one assist, while Keiron Murray scored one goal in the loss.
“It was a pretty even half in the first half, but sometimes a game like that is dictated by being prepared in pregame, and I just have to do a better job of getting my guys ready to go,” said Bishop Fenwick coach Julius Pertillar.
The Tanners didn’t waste any time getting on the scoreboard in this one, as Maciel broke into the offensive zone and found the back of the net just two minutes into the first half. But Fenwick answered back quickly, as Noci got the ball on his foot in the box and rocketed a shot into the back of the net to tie things up at 1-1.
The back-and-forth action continued through the rest of the first half, but Peabody got the upper hand midway through the first half when Braz and Maciel scored goals within six minutes of each other to push Peabody ahead 3-1.
Once again, Fenwick was able to answer back and keep it a close game. With about 15 minutes to go in the half, Murray found the back of the net on a deep shot to make it 3-2 Tanners.
But in the second half, it was all Peabody.
Things got going quickly when Maciel notched his hat-trick goal off a corner at the 31-minute mark, but the Tanners didn’t truly pull away until the final 17 minutes of play — when Braz, Almonte and Ortiz all found the back of the net to push the lead to 7-2 and secure the big win.
Fenwick (3-5-4) hosts Bishop Stang Saturday afternoon (3:30).
Peabody (5-6) hosts Marblehead Monday (4).
“We’ve got seven games left and we need eight more points, so we’ve got to pull out four wins down the stretch,” said McKeen. “We just need to keep focusing on playing consistently and continuing to put a lot of pressure on other teams with our offense.”