Patriot Reign

Pilgrim dominates Coventry, captures D-II championship

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/11/14

On Wednesday, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team ended the curse.

Three days later, the Pats became champions.

After being eliminated in the Division II semifinals each of the past three seasons, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Patriot Reign

Pilgrim dominates Coventry, captures D-II championship

Posted

On Wednesday, the Pilgrim girls’ soccer team ended the curse.

Three days later, the Pats became champions.

After being eliminated in the Division II semifinals each of the past three seasons, Pilgrim got over that hump with a 5-2 win over Scituate. Then on Saturday, the Pats knocked off previously undefeated and top-seeded Coventry 2-0 to win the D-II championship, their third title in school history and first since winning the D-I crown in 2000.

Hannah Johnson and Katelyn Vieira each found the back of the net for Pilgrim, which heavily-controlled play right from the opening whistle. Coventry didn’t have a single shot on goal from inside the box, and the Pats broke open a 0-0 game at the half with the two goals to win the championship.

Armed with talent all over the field, the second-seeded Pats finally accomplished the goal they’ve been chasing since day one.

“Absolutely amazing,” said Vieira, a senior who led the state in goals this season. “I’m speechless. I can’t put it into words. I’m in class and there’s teachers all day long like, ‘Are you ready for this? This is your season. This is your time. This is your team’s time to shine.’”

Vieira led a second-half onslaught that saw the Pats play inspired soccer, generating chance after chance until Johnson found the net in the 51st minute and Vieira followed with the back-breaker in the 64th.

It was a near-perfect half of soccer for Pilgrim. The Pats went 13-2-2 during the season – compared to Coventry’s 13-0-3 mark – yet played as dominating a stretch over the game’s final 40 minutes as they played all year long.

“Capitalize on some opportunities and win the second half,” said Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders, of his message to his team at halftime. “You’ve got 40 minutes left to go on the season no matter what, so go out there and take it. Win it. You win the second half, you win the state championship.”

And win it they did, both for themselves and their coach. Flanders, who attended Pilgrim in the late 80’s, also serves as the girls’ lacrosse coach, where his team’s have made two consecutive Division III finals but come up on the short end both times.

He took over the soccer program last season, led the Pats to the semifinals, and then helped them break through this season. With many girls who play lacrosse also on the soccer team, the core and their coach have established a winning tradition that was fully validated on Saturday.

“The days of being at Pilgrim, those stuck with me,” Flanders said. “I wanted to come back here and win it with these kids. It’s a dream come true.”

The dream was on hold through the first 40 minutes, as the Pats badly out-shot Coventry and had three corners compared to zero for the Oakers, but they couldn’t find the back of the net.

Vieira had a pair of solid chances, including a header that sailed just wide of the goal post off of a corner kick, and Emma Manosh drilled a shot on Coventry keeper Alyssa Derrick in the 25th minute, but to no avail.

Kendra Tantimonico did her part up front as well, taking the corners and sending two other free kicks through the box that fell harmlessly away.

Yet, nobody was panicking with 40 minutes in the books.

“I just feel like we were confident in ourselves,” said junior goalkeeper Hannah Page. “We knew that we had it. We just kept pushing each other. It was confidence the whole half.”

Once the second half started, Pilgrim picked up right where it left off. It had a corner kick six minutes in, and then finally struck five minutes after that.

Vieira was taken down about 25 yards from the goal on the left side, and Tantimonico took it. She sent it perfectly in front of the goal and Vieira managed to clip it with her foot, sending it slowly towards the far post. Johnson was right there and she kicked it into the open goal for a 1-0 lead.

“Johnson, on her, she’s just a person of opportunity and she got the winning goal,” Flanders said.

Suddenly close to the championship, Pilgrim changed very little in its approach. Its defense – led by Emily Fluette, Alexia Martins, Sophia DeLuca and Haley Buco – locked down the Oakers, as Coventry wasn’t able to generate even one more realistic scoring chance.

“We kept putting up a fight, never letting up,” Fluette said. “Never letting goals go to our head. It was 0-0 in our heads. It was perseverance.”

Pilgrim might have been playing as though it was 0-0, but Vieira made it 2-0 with 16:36 to play in the game on a highlight-reel goal that made the outcome of the game seem like a foregone conclusion.

Manosh sent a pass from close to midfield up to the some open space on the right just outside the corner of the box. Vieira out-ran her defender to get there, and with Derrick playing well out of the goal to cut down the angle, Vieira surprised her defender and Derrick by whirling and shooting quickly without another touch.

The ball slid past Derrick and all the way into the left corner, setting off a wild celebration on the field.

“I saw the girl there, but I also saw the goalie right behind her,” Vieira said. “I knew that if I was going to score this goal it had to be a one-touch shot and it has to be quick. I took advantage of the girl coming out of the box.”

The rest of the game was just a countdown to the clock hitting zero.

Before long, it happened.

Pilgrim, after years of contention, was the last team standing. The Pats are state champions.

“I’m an alum of Pilgrim high school, one of the big reasons I went back to coach and left Warwick Vets – to come back to Pilgrim and hopefully bring a championship home,” Flanders said.

The win came on the heels of a 5-2 domination of Scituate in which the Pats used three second-half goals to break open a tight game. Vieira and Tantimonico each scored twice, with Molly Lynch finding the back of the goal as well.

Because of that, Pilgrim earned the right to play on Saturday, and it didn’t waste its golden opportunity.

“The last two years we’ve made it to the semifinals and that was it,” Page said. “To finally get here, and then win state championships, it’s absolutely crazy. I’m proud of all my girls, my coaches. I’m so proud of everybody for how hard they’ve worked.”

Pilgrim will say goodbye to seniors Madison Almonte, Vieira, Manosh, Emma Reilly, Fluette and Buco.

But they’re going out on top.

“We worked our butts off and it paid off,” Fluette said. We just kept going and we never let up. When we got down, we just pulled each other up and we kept fighting. And we got the win.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here