Tide boys soccer falls to Beverly in Division 1 preliminary round heartbreaker

Despite the loss, Everett’s first-year coach sees the culture changing on the pitch to transform the program soon into a state powerhouse

By Joe McConnell

In Rodney Landaverde’s first-year as the Everett High School boys soccer coach, the Crimson Tide (7-8-4) made the Division 1 state tournament. They were the 42^nd seed, and last Saturday, Nov. 2, they went up against host Beverly (13-4-2), the 23^rd seed, in a preliminary round game. It wasn’t decided until the first overtime period, where the home team Panthers edged the Everett boys by the narrowest of margins, 2-1. Playing 80-minutes weren’t enough to declare a winner between these two evenly-matched clubs that also scrimmaged each other in late August. They needed an overtime period to decide the overcome.

Landaverde was pleased with his team’s performance in the first half. “We were able to find our rhythm early, and were dominating the play,” the coach said. “We possessed the ball and controlled the game in our favor. It caused Beverly to lose the ball, and struggle to generate offensive chances.”

But unfortunately, despite Everett’s domination, the game was still scoreless at halftime. The Tide continue to dominate at the start of the second half.

“We carried over the same amount of intensity from the first half,” said Landaverde, “and finally broke the scoreless tie 20 minutes into the half, when captain Kareem Drissi took a bouncing ball in the box from sophomore Whitney Pereira to give us the lead.”

Even after Drissi’s goal, Everett continued to control the game. They were doing all of this without starting goalie Douglas Landaverde, who was out with an injury. Sophomore Edwin Menjivar filled in nicely for him. “(Menjivar) stepped up and was incredible for us. He made a total of six saves in his first varsity start, while dealing with the pressures of postseason play,” said the first-year coach.

But with around two minutes left in regulation, Beverly was awarded a free kick at the 20-yard line, where a bouncing ball in the box sneaked into the net to tie up the proceedings at one apiece. It ultimately sent this game to overtime, but unfortunately the momentum shifted in Beverly’s direction.   The Panthers eventually scored the game-winner five minutes into the extra period.

“It was a heartbreaking way to lose after having outplayed a strong Beverly team, who just won the Northeastern Conference,” said Landaverde. “We also faced them in the preseason, and lost to them, 6-1.

“I was very happy with how we played them this time around,” added Landaverde. “We have shown incredible improvement throughout the season.”

Landaverde also praised the individual efforts of Bryan Ribeiro, Luvens Hector, Efrain Ramos, Antony Henriquez, Santiago Arredondo, Timothy Figueroa Villanueva and Drissi. “All of these players really stood out on both offense and defense against Beverly,” he said.

Landaverde used the words “grateful and happy” to have made it to the playoffs in his first year along the sidelines, while adding, “I was able to show our players and supporters that there’s a lot more to come. I can’t wait to begin to prepare for next season in order to continue to push the culture forward that we were able to build this year.”

Going into this year’s playoffs, Landaverde felt very confident, because, as he put it, “I trusted our system and trusted all of our players after a long journey this season. We felt like we had plenty to show Beverly and the state. Each senior had a special role this year. Some brought back experience from previous seasons. They helped me live this season through them. For the newcomers, they adapted very well to a new culture, and were very receptive to each other and also being a part of a special team that was able to get things to click in a very short amount of time.”

Landaverde admits the playoff loss to Beverly does hurt, but he’s still proud to have gotten Everett back into the playoffs with the best in the state. But now, it’s time to take that next step, and he confidently predicts, “it’s Everett’s turn to dominate in soccer over the next couple of years.”