Mustangs' McGrath Heads Up Norwood's Narrow Victory Against Dedham

Textbook execution in the 32nd minute by the Norwood boy’s varsity soccer team lifted the visiting Mustangs to a 1-0 win Thursday against at .

Junior Sam McGrath scored the game’s lone goal off an assist from Nick Way, but both McGrath and coach Brian Meringer credited the stellar ball movement of Tyler Goncalves for the goal.

“It all started in the back and it came all the way up, Ty ran around a lot of people to get there and passed it to Nick, who did a [heck] of a job to cross it in – and I was just there to head it in,” McGrath said after the match.

It was the first time through four games that the Mustangs led at any point this season, Meringer said.

“It was nice to get up and get a little confidence,” Meringer said.

The goal against a “clean, physical team” like Dedham was to get up early and keep them at bay, the Mustangs’ coach said.

“Dedham always plays tough,” Meringer said. “I always find they are prepared. It is always one-goal games. We’re going to have to face them again, and it is obviously a big rematch.”

While the first half was full of chances for both squads, goalies Andrew Stover, of Norwood, and Ben Walsh, of Dedham, made fantastic saves. – and the defense in front of Walsh stepped up to challenge Norwood’s speedy strikers.

“Overall we played good defense, we won a lot of free balls,” Dedham coach Paul Podolski said.

Dedham wasn’t without chances of their own, however.

Senior leader Mike McFarland had several great chances to head in a tying goal in the second half off restarts, and Santiago Alvare pressured the Norwood fullbacks, but with limited success.

While Podolski praised his team’s level of excitement, intensity and ability to put the ball on net on restarts, he said that the team needs to generate much more offense.

“We have to be able to attack vertically,” Podolski said after the match. “We only had a couple chances and from that point of view, I was disappointed.”

For Norwood, the win over rival Dedham means one win closer to the playoffs. The 1-3 Mustangs must play five more Sullivan Rule games, of which they need to win three.

“It’s our first win, it is a step in the right direction,” McGrath said.