Crimson Tide boys, girls soccer teams begin new year on the pitch against one common opponent

Revere, Lynn English are on tap for both teams next week after the girls host Lawrence Saturday morning at the Stadium

By Joe McConnell

Last fall, Division 1 Lowell finished the regular season with a perfect 18-0-0 record and was seeded second in the power rankings going into the state tournament. In the preseason rankings this year, the Red Raiders are ninth. But regardless of the seedings, they are traditionally a Top 10 club in the state. It’s teams like this that second year Everett High School boys soccer coach Rodney Landaverde wants to play against in order to show his squad where he wants them to be, and they seem to be getting the message after the home opener against their Merrimack Valley Conference counterpart last week on Sept. 3. The game ended in a hard-fought scoreless tie.

“We did a great job holding down our defensive line, while having a couple of dangerous opportunities to break the tie at the other end of the field, but just couldn’t convert on any goals,” said Landaverde, who guided the Tide to the postseason one year ago as their rookie head coach. “Lowell also had a couple of chances, but it too had difficulty finding the back of the net.”

Landaverde praised the efforts of Daniel Pinho and Jason Santos after the opener. “They both did a great job commanding the line, while staying disciplined in the back,” said the coach, who also mentioned that goalie Edwin Menjivar Carbajal earned his first clean sheet of the year to help secure a point for his teammates in the overall standings.

But last Friday, Sept. 5, the Everett boys remained at home at 7-Acres, where they hosted non-league Marblehead out of the Northeastern Conference. They ended up dropping a 2-0 decision to the Magicians.

“It was a tough day moving the ball around and generating chances,” said Landaverde. “We had to deal with some injuries throughout the game, and as a result had a tough time getting the ball to our front three players to score goals.”

But the Everett coach is definitely not discouraged, because he knows the effort is there from everybody on the roster. “This early in the season we see lots of promise from the new additions on the team, who are starting to grasp our style of play,” Landaverde said.

The Magicians were awarded a penalty shot in the first half, but Menjivar Carbajal made a tremendous save to keep things close on the scoreboard. His teammates started to pick it up in the second half by creating more chances that could have resulted in goals, only to be denied by Marblehead goalie Matias Watts-Cruz.

The visitors were then awarded another penalty shot but did convert this time to break the scoreless tie. They tacked on the insurance tally in the final 20 minutes of the game.

A total of 110 players were on hand for the first day of tryouts on Aug. 18. Landaverde kept 75 in the program, 25 each on the varsity, JV and freshman rosters. On the big club alone, there are two freshmen, nine sophomores and eight juniors to go along with seven seniors to demonstrate the program’s youthfulness.

Only the numbers in this year’s program matches the overall enthusiasm. They all came out to be a part of something on the rise after the varsity clinched a state tournament berth last year.

Earlier this week, the Tide took on Malden for the first time this year under the Everett Veterans Memorial Stadium lights on Tuesday night (Sept. 9) after press deadline, before going up against host Chelsea two days later. They will then be playing on consecutive days at Revere (Sept. 16, 4:15 p.m.) and Lynn English (Sept. 17, 6 p.m. at Lynn’s Manning Field) next week.

Girls begin season on the road

The EHS girls soccer team, coached by Dom Persuitte, had to begin its season on the road against both non-league Lowell and Waltham last week. They first fell to Lowell in the regular season opener on Sept. 3, 3-1, before getting shutdown by the Hawks two days later, 6-0.

“We got off to a very slow start against Lowell, and things were not clicking for us until the very end of the matchup,” said Persuitte.

Gisselle Lemus scored the lone Everett goal assisted by Sofia Arana-Quintanilla. It was a placed kick out of the box to the right of the Lowell keeper that followed sustained offensive pressure.

“We still have much to work on, but I remain very optimistic about this season,” said the veteran Everett coach.

Against Waltham, the Everett girls came out fast and were very aggressive to the ball in all aspects of the game, pressing the Hawks all over the field. However, some simple mistakes led to a few breakdowns, and Waltham took advantage of that, according to Persuitte, who added,  “Gisele Erazo had one of her best games to date. Her free kicks and crosses were on point, and she also had a few shots on net.

The coach also mentioned that Kayla Andrade, Lavina Simon, Casey Martinez and Gabby Lones all played their positions perfectly.

Despite the lopsided loss, Persuitte said that Kaylyn Rivera did a good job in net, while still learning the new position.

The Tide girls were scheduled this week to go up against host Malden (Sept. 9) and Chelsea (Sept. 11 at the Stadium) after press deadline. Non-league Lawrence comes to the Stadium Saturday (Sept. 13) for an 11 a.m. game. Revere (Sept. 16, 4:15 p.m.) and Lynn English (Sept. 18, 4:15 p.m.) also head to Everett next week for a pair of games at 7-Acres.