Nobles Girls Soccer Bursts Out of Gate, Holds On to Beat Taft in NEPSAC Quarters

Nobles girls soccer came out on fire in the first 25 minutes Wednesday against Taft in the NEPSAC quarterfinals at DeFazio Park in Needham to win 2-1.

The Bulldogs peppered the Taft defense with, unofficially, 14 shots on net alone. Nobles finished two of those shots and led 2-0 heading into halftime.

"Basically, we came out and played the kind of soccer we've wanted to play. We put the ball down on the ground and play one-and-two touch and play beautiful soccer," Nobles coach Ben Snyder said.

Both goals came off loose balls and "scrappy" sort of goals, Snyder said after the match.

"What's strange is we had all these great opportunities and we shot them into the goalie's chest, then we get two kind of scrappy goals. We certainly earned to be ahead," Snyder said.

The first goal came off a throw-in, hit Corey Moynihan in the box, and Phoebe Tateronis tipped it toward the net past the Taft defense, and senior Chelsea Landon pushed the ball in to put Nobles on the board in the 13th minute.

"You take them anyway you can get them," the coach said.

Tateronis scored the game's second goal when she bounced a shot off Taft's goalkeeper, took the rebound and slammed it into the back of the net past diving Taft defenders.

"[Tateronis] is so skilled, and can play the ball so well. It was easy to play the ball to her feet and then create chances," Snyder said.

Nobles controlled play throughout the first half as Bulldog keeper Alex Johnson touched the ball just twice, and Nobles had seven corner kicks to zero for Taft. Nobles could've scored more than the pair with how well they played, Snyder said.

"We could've been up ... 5-0. We had opportunities. [Taft] got nothing in the first half," Snyder said after asking a player how well she thinks the team played.

In the second half it looked as if Nobles would continue its strong play as just 30 seconds in Coco Woeltz crossed a ball right-to-left in the box, but it was just out of the reach of Landon, who would've had an empty net.

"It was almost a tap-in job. We get that and it is 3-0 and over," Snyder said.

The Bulldogs received a gigantic scare in the 74th minute when Tateronis, one of the team's top scorers, went down with a knee injury inside Taft's 18-yard box. Tateronis remained on the ground for several minutes, and was helped off the field. She didn't return to action, but Snyder said he felt confident she would play Saturday in the semifinals

Taft attempted to get back in the game late in injury time with a goal off a header, but it was much too late, and Nobles hung on for the 2-1 quarterfinal victory.

"The kids played great, they played hard," Snyder said.

Nobles will take on third-seeded Loomis Chaffee at home at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Nobles beat Loomis Chaffee 3-1 in the first game of the season, but that doesn't mean much to Snyder.

"You never like playing a team twice where you've already beaten them once," Snyder said.