By ALEX SPONSELLER The Pilgrim boys soccer team dropped a tough 3-1 loss to Smithfield in its season opener last week on the road.

The Pats took an early 1-0 lead on a goal from Paolo Frias, assisted by Zach DeSilva. Smithfield’s Matt Swain, however, would score less than eight minutes later to knot the score at 1-1 heading into the halftime break.

Just over five minutes into the second half, Smithfield would capitalize on a corner kick to take the 2-1 lead. The two teams would battle until there was 15:03 remaining, when a handball foul was called and Adam Benzina capitalized to give Smithfield the 3-1 insurance which would be sustained the remainder of the way.

Pilgrim keepers R.J. Ryan and Ryan Kilduff combined for eight stops in net.

“I was quite happy with them, they played fine. We just need to have more concentration when knowing when the ball is in the penalty area. That’s how it goes sometimes, that’s why we lost the game. We just didn’t put enough together,” said Pilgrim coach Bill Carroll, who felt that it was one of those unfortunate games when officiating took over at times. “It’s frustrating that we didn’t get those (calls) down on their end, it’s frustrating when we don’t get them on our end. Everyone says it was a handball in the box, he puts it outside the box, everyone says it was over the line. That’s never a penalty, I like the games to be decided by the teams. We played OK, we played fine. We had three kids with cramps, part of that is because we didn’t have a preseason … you need those scrimmages. It was tough.”

The Pats fell to 0-1 on the season and will next take on city rival Toll Gate on Saturday morning.

“They can play better than that and they know that they can play better than that. I expected more from our team, I didn’t know exactly what we had going in since we didn’t have those scrimmages. You need a couple games under your belt to start the season, but it is what it is,” added Carroll, who is also happy to see his team get to play this season despite the ongoing pandemic. “We have eight seniors, we will be fine. I am just happy that they’re playing. I’m happy they’re playing, especially the seniors.”