Titans back on track with comeback win

Kevin Pomeroy
Posted 9/30/14

The Toll Gate boys’ soccer team hasn’t been playing up to its own standards over the last couple of weeks, and it was doing more of the same during the early portion of its game Thursday with Mt. …

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Titans back on track with comeback win

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The Toll Gate boys’ soccer team hasn’t been playing up to its own standards over the last couple of weeks, and it was doing more of the same during the early portion of its game Thursday with Mt. Hope.

The Titans, just 1-2-1 in their previous four games entering the game with the Huskies, fell behind 1-0 just 11 minutes in on a defensive breakdown, and the defending Division II champs were clearly scuffling.

But the script flipped in a hurry. Standout senior Josh Sandin slipped a perfect pass through the box that fellow senior Mark Ramsey knocked home in the 19th minute, and Alexis Beltran gave Toll Gate the lead with a goal in the 23rd minute.

That was all the Titans would need, as the defense held strong from there, especially in the second half in the 2-1 victory.

Toll Gate improved to 4-2-1, picking up its first win in three games. It’s in sixth place in D-II. Mt. Hope dropped to 2-4-2.

“They’re a tough team,” said Toll Gate head coach Tim Hayes. “They’re kind of right along with us in the standings, and we’ve been scuffling along the past four games. It was nice to get back on the winning side.”

Toll Gate started off its season 3-1, but lost 2-0 to unbeaten West Warwick last week before tying winless Prout. Neither result was one the team was particularly proud of, which is what made Thursday’s game so important.

With a lot of new personnel on the field after last year’s title team, Hayes expected those growing pains, but there also has to be actual team growth.

“We’re still figuring it out in a lot of ways,” Hayes said.

It was a tough start against the Huskies. Eleven minutes in, the Titans had the ball near midfield and tried to make a pass into the offensive zone, but the ball deflected off of Mt. Hope’s Jose Lima, who followed the path of the ball and ran onto it near the Toll Gate box.

Short-sided, Lima managed to slip his breakaway shot past goalkeeper Kyle Brown for a 1-0 lead.

“We were in pretty good positions and we had a lapse,” Hayes said. “We had a slip, and all of a sudden the ball is in the net.”

Still early in the game, though, Toll Gate steadily started to dictate play. Seven minutes after the goal, James Meizoso had a good look at the net but sent his shot just over the crossbar.

One minute later, the Titans broke through. Sandin made a run down the right side and dragged the Mt. Hope defense with him. With the added attention on him, he found a small opening from the goal line and sent a pass all the way to the other side of the box, where Ramsey was waiting to knock it into the open net from 10 yards out.

With the game tied, Toll Gate had its footing, and it took the lead four minutes later. Andrew Falso corralled the ball just ahead of midfield, and passed it straight ahead to Beltran. Beltran took a couple of dribbles before unleashing a hard, low shot toward the left side of the goal that nicked a defender on the way by and found its way into the corner of the net.

“We created a few more opportunities than we have in the past few games,” Hayes said. “We switched some things around and we got a little bit more active offensively.”

Toll Gate was in control, and stayed that way through the remainder of the game. It had a golden opportunity to make it 3-1 when Sandin took a penalty kick in the 50th minute after Mt. Hope took down a Toll Gate player in the box, but Sandin’s shot went directly at Huskies’ keeper Brian Gamez.

Still, the Titans’ defense was doing more than enough to uphold the one-goal lead. With returning starters Kyle McGuire, Andrew Rocchio and Meizoso back, plus freshman Connor Haley, Mt. Hope rarely threatened.

“That’s how we’ve been with the back four, defensively, all year,” Hayes said.

Toll Gate had another great chance in the 76th minute on a cross from Sandin, but Falso couldn’t get a foot on the ball bouncing in front of him in the box.

But the Titans were pleased with the result, nonetheless. Their record has them right in the thick of things in the D-II race, and they’ll have a chance to move higher up when they travel to Moses Brown today for a game at 3:30 p.m.

The Quakers are 5-2.

“We just want to be a competitive team,” Hayes said. “We understand that we’re bringing different personnel to the field than we did last year. The guys understand that and they’re excited for the challenge.”

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