Boys' Soccer Comes Back to Beat Reading 3-1

A mere 46 seconds after the opening whistle, midfielder Charlie McRae put the Reading High boys’ soccer team up 1-0 on Woburn Saturday evening at the Kicks for Cancer event at Concord-Carlisle High School.

McRae, a senior captain, knocked the ball loose from Woburn goalkeeper Andrew Deane and then put it home, on a play the referees deemed legal, much to the dismay of Woburn coach Paul Sands, who believed Deane was interfered with.

After the early tally, Sands said he told his players to forget about the no-call and move on – and that’s exactly what they did, picking up their collective intensity and scoring three unanswered goals on way to a 3-1 win.

“When you’re put in an early hole like that,” Sands said, “it’s either going to pick your game up or it’s going to put you in a shell, and I think it actually picked our game up.”

After McRae’s goal, Reading continued to dictate play and apply pressure for the next 10 minutes, but they failed to convert again. From that point on, it was pretty much all Woburn, as David Cooper and company controlled the midfield and strikers Valerio Silva and Anthony Nguyen caused near-constant headaches in Reading’s end.

“We kind of sat back on our heels and let them take it to us a little bit – and we can’t play that way,” Reading coach Dan McGrath said.

After a barrage of chances from the 22nd to 26th minute, Woburn’s Jake Tedesco scored the equalizer. The senior wingback moved up from his defensive position, took a pass from Silva and hit a low crossing shot just inside the far post.

Later, in the 61st minute in the second half, Silva nailed a bouncing ball in the box past Reading goalie Jeremy Battye for what would be the game-winning goal. Silva, one of the state’s top scorers, had a hat-trick in the first 20 minutes of Woburn’s 4-4 tie with Stoneham Wednesday.

After wreaking havoc all game, Cooper finally got in the book in the 78th minute. With Reading pressing forward, the senior center midfielder intercepted a ball off a chest trap at midfield, took it all the way to Reading’s box, beat a defender and poked it past a charging Battye.

“He’s tenacious – he’s been tenacious all year long,” Sands said of Cooper. “He just never seems to run out of energy.”

Cooper controlled the midfield with fellow center midfielder Brendan Gilgun, and Nick Rocheville and Brandon Taylor on the outside. Sweeper Bobby Campbell, stopper Nick Dalton and wingbacks John Tobin and Chris Connolly, along with Tedesco, formed the defense in front of Deane.

Sands said he played his entire bench and called the victory “a great team win.”

Sophomore Dane Sullivan and freshman Yoav Barkai started in striker spots for Reading. In addition to McRae, Sam Fargo, Ben Weinreb and Jordan Coleman started at midfield, while sweeper Eric O’Brien, stopper Brian Wyer and outside backs Chris Callahan and Johnathan Millett were in at defense.

Woburn (4-1-5) will host Watertown at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, while Reading will travel to Stoneham Tuesday for a 3:45 p.m. game.

Kicks for Cancer, in its fifth year, features a half dozen games and has helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. It was started to honor the late Lois Wells, the mother of Concord-Carlisle assistant coach Steve Wells.

Players wore either pink or blue jerseys Saturday with the name of someone they know who has been impacted by cancer. Woburn players also wore socks with breast cancer pink ribbons on them.