Highlanders Storm Past Malden

It was a case of deja vu all over again for the Somerville High boys soccer team on Wednesday, as the Highlanders beat visiting Malden in a 4-0 shutout for the second time this season. 

The win was an important one for Somerville as the team can check off another Greater Boston League victory to sit above the .500 mark at 4-3-3. The loss dropped the Golden Tornadoes to 4-6 overall. 

"We're happy it's a win," said Somerville coach George Scarpelli. "we needed a win. We're not focused on the other team, we're focused on ourselves right now. Our biggest problem this year is that either we play down or we can't capitalize on our chances and tonight we did."

Somerville jumped out to an early, 1-0, lead at the 34:30 mark when Murilo Zaneete scored on header off of a well-placed corner kick by Kevin Montiel. 

It wasn't long before the Highlanders struck again, this time at the 28:30 mark on a goal by Richard Rodriguez off yet another quality corner kick . 

Just six minutes later, Somerville took a commanding, 3-0, lead when Homero Morais broke through a crowd of defenders just outside the penalty box and sent a perfectly-placed shot just out of reach of Malden goalie Zula Bougdaev. 

"We tried to go with it and put more pressure on them," said Scarpelli. "We took advantage of a few breaks and capitalized on them. We started letting up a little bit and they actually came back the last 10 minutes of the first half and we responded by shutting them down."

Malden began to turn things around toward the end of the first half and continued to pressure Somerville through much of the second half, but the Highlander defense, led by senior captain Toby Moynihan, remained staunch, as did goalie Bruno Souza, who came away with several key blocks including a one-on-one situation midway through the second half. 

"Our defense has done a great job and is probably carrying us right now," said Scarpelli. "(Toby) has been playing four years for us. He's big, he's strong, he's vocal and he's probably one of the best backs in the league, if not the state."

Somerville will look to build off of this win when it travels to take on Cambridge on Friday at 7 p.m. 

Girls Soccer Nets 1-1 Draw

Despite several scoring opportunities by sophomore Natalie Henrique, freshman Rachael Berry, senior Marrara Golcalves, senior Jessica Menjivar and senior Karolina Nunes, the Somerville girls soccer team went into the half down, 1-0. 

However, that pressure paid off in the second half when Menjivar tied it for Somerville on a  header off an assist from Goncalves.

Somerville will travel to take on Latin Academy today at 3:45 p.m.