SHS Boys' Soccer Wins Fourth Middlesex League Title in Nine Years

The Stoneham High School boys’ soccer team have clinched a Middlesex League title for the fourth time in nine years following its 4-3 win Tuesday over Watertown.

The boys hold an 8-2-7 record (23 points). Stoneham coach Jim Carino could not be happier for this group of players.

“We have won the league four times in nine years and each one is special to me. I have been with this particular group of players for a long time, great bunch of kids and great soccer players,” Jim Carino said. “My son is on the team which is particularly rewarding for me, but I have been coaching all of them since they were six years old, so they all feel like my sons.”

Captain Ryan Carino could not think of a better way of going out with his team in this season.

“We won with a great group of kids and left our mark forever,” Ryan Carino said. “I will always look back on this and know that we were one of the only four soccer teams to accomplish this feat.”

Ryan Carino stressed that the next goal going forward is to attain home field advantage for the first few rounds of the State tournament.

“We have been playing some really good soccer lately and we need to keep it up for the next couple of weeks,” Ryan Carino said. “We want home field and then just go as far as we can in the tournament.”

Ryan Carino's fellow captain Anthony DeAngelo could not be more excited for the team winning yet another Middlesex League title.

“It means a lot considering how long we have been playing together and how long we have worked hard for this,” DeAngelo said. “I remember when we were 14 years old playing Appian (Soccer Club) and we won that league and we all kept saying ‘Wait until we are seniors’ and now we finally are seniors and it’s a relief to have gotten this done.”

DeAngelo knows his team is now in great company for accomplishing such a significant feat, “especially since the only three other teams to win were in the early 2000s with the DeSantis’ is crazy,” DeAngelo said. “To be in the same conversation as those teams is a compliment.”

Like Ryan Carino, DeAngelo wants to accumulate as many points as possible to play a few more home games at Stoneham High.

“We can max out at 25 points and that probably would do it, but we have to win our last two games,” DeAngelo said. “Once we get in the tournament, we need to keep rolling like we have been and hopefully give Mr. Carino his fourth ring.”

DeAngelo attributes the success of the team to chemistry and bonding.

“We are all friends, hang out and trust each other,” DeAngelo said. “We joke around and have a few laughs, but when it comes down to business, we get serious.”

Brad Fagan, also a captain of the team, said how important it was to win the Middlesex League title.

“We have been playing and working together for many years that to accomplish this in our last year together feels great,” Fagan said. “We are in good company with the phenomenal teams that have won it before us and that makes this feel even better.”

Fagan just wants to keep winning games heading into the State tournament.

“We have been hot of late and we just want the streak to continue and hopefully roll through the first couple of rounds and make some real memories for ourselves,” Fagan said. “We have been working hard since last spring and we are starting to see it pay off.”