The No. 3 St. John’s Prep boys’ soccer team had a chance to accomplish something they haven’t been able to do for 15 years: clinching a spot into the division 1 state finals. Wednesday night at Woburn, the Eagles punched their ticket to the finals as they defeated No. 2 Saint John’s 1-0.
St. John’s Prep Head Coach David Crowell was excited after the historic win.
“This was a back and forth game that could have gone either way,” Crowell said. “This was the third time we played Saint John’s this season, two of the games ended with us winning 1-0, and one ended in a 1-1 tie. Thankfully for us, we were able to be the victor in these encounters.”
Crowell made a change to his team’s formation. The Eagles usually set up in a 3-5-2 formation, but changed to a 4-5-1 formation Crowell said paid off.
“Saint John’s has given us a lot of trouble in every single game we played against them, so we thought making this change would help out our defense,” Crowell said.
13 minutes into the first half, St. John’s created a fantastic chance to score the first goal of the game off a corner kick, but the opportunity resulted in a shot clanging off the crossbar.
13 minutes later, the Eagles created another scoring chance and would not squander this oppurtunity. St. John’s senior Jake Vana fired a shot on net after a nice set up by junior Graham Kramer that ended up being blocked by the Saint John’s goalie, but Vana corralled the rebound and his next shot ricocheted off a Pioneer and into the net. This gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead and proved to be the game winner.
St. John’s controlled play for most of the first half, but the score remained 1-0 at halftime. The second half was a different story as Saint John’s controlled the play throughout. 11 minutes into the half, the Pioneers had their best scoring chance of the game, but their shot bounced off the crossbar. Despite Saint John’s controlling the time of possession in the half, the Eagles were able to limit their scoring chances and preserve the shutout.
“The difference in the game was our defense,” Crowell said. “Our defense played fantastic all game long, which was needed as Saint John’s played really well. That team on the other side is a very good team, and it was great to see our defense be able to shut them out.”
St. John’s Prep has been accustomed to shutting teams out, as this one marked its 15th shutout of the season. Anchoring the Eagles stellar defense was senior goalie Ioannis Andrikoploulos.
“Ioannis has had such an amazing year, and there is a reason why he is an All-New England player,” Crowell said.
The senior trio of Will Minor (captain), Benjamin Bailey, and Jeffrey Lopez, along with junior Ross O’Brien, all had strong performances on the defensive end as well.
St. John’s will now take on No. 1 seed Needham in the division 1 finals on Saturday. The Eagles are familiar with the Rockets as they played them once this year, defeating them 4-0. Crowell is excited for the matchup, but expects a much different game to take place.
“It may have been a 4-0 the last time, but we do not expect that to be the case on Saturday,” Crowell said. “The last time we played Needham, a lot of things went right for us and a lot of things went wrong for them. Needham is the No. 1 seed for a reason, and we expect a great game to happen on Saturday. The last time we made it to the finals, we ended up as champions, and we hope history can repeat itself.”