TURNERS FALLS — As the fall season winds down, every game becomes more important as teams jockey for postseason spots.
The Franklin Tech boys soccer team took on Hampden Charter School of Science with a chance to clinch a tournament spot on Thursday, but failed to get that needed victory in a 1-0 Tri-County League loss.
The visiting Wolves (8-6-2, 7-1 TCL) earned a tournament spot themselves with the victory. Eagles coach Kurt Richardson offered high praise to one of the Hampden Charter fullbacks for keeping his squad off the scoreboard.
“That’s a nice club,” Richardson said. “[Tyreece Cherival] in the middle is the second-best guy I’ve seen this year. He knows what he’s doing, he’s so calm up there. He’ll disrupt an offensive charge, and instead of just wailing it back at them, he’ll distribute. We had a good showing today. It was end-to-end action all game long. It wasn’t just midfield and they were driving it down our throat all game. It was back-and-forth.”
With rain coming down in the beginning of the contest, Franklin Tech (7-5-2, 3-1-2) nearly slipped in the opening goal.
A shot bounced off the goalpost, rolling right on the goal line before keeper Justin Clarkson grabbed it just in the knick of time.
It was the best opportunity the Eagles had, as the Wolves ran a five-fullback defense, making life difficult for the Eagle attack. Whenever a Franklin Tech player got the ball near the 18-yard box, they were met by a pack of Wolves defensemen looking to keep the ball away from goal.
The Wolves ended up finishing the game with a 15-10 shot advantage.
“I thought we had a good showing today,” Richardson said. “Any one of those could have snuck in, especially when it was raining early, the ball was awful slippery. You never know what can happen if we get one. They were playing five fullbacks. We run a 4-3-3 so right off the bat, you’re on an odd man down. I told them you have to keep it away from [Cherival]. You can’t take advantage of that team.”
Hampden Charter scored the lone goal of the game near the halfway point of the first half, with Wolves forward Javin Miller slipping a pass through to teammate Colby Ranck.
The lengthy forward blasted a shot that was initially saved by Eagle keeper Matt Regnier, one of his five in the game, but it bounced off him and Ranck was able to dribble by and put it into the open net for the 1-0 advantage.
Ranck came inches away from extending the Hampden Charter lead multiple times, but one header went off the post in the first half off a corner and a rocket shot from way outside the box was also heading right into the net before Regnier got a finger on it, tipping the ball over the top of the goal.
When these two teams met earlier in the season, the Franklin Tech lost 4-1. Richardson saw a noticeable difference in his team on Thursday from where they were in the beginning of the season.
“We were much better in our passing game today,” Richardson said. “We had some chances where if they had gone our way, maybe we could have got a win. We’ve come a distance since we’ve played them the first time.”
With four games to go, the Eagles need either one more win or two ties to earn a postseason birth. They’ll have a chance to punch their ticket today, when they travel to play at Greenfield.
Hampden Charter 1, FC Tech 0
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Hampden Charter |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
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FC Tech |
0 |
0 |
— |
0 |
Goals: (HC) Ranck.
Assists: (HC) Miller.
Saves: (HC) Clarkson 8. (FT) Regnier 5.