Boy's Soccer: Smithfield Dominates the Second Half and Takes the Mounties, 4-0

The Mounties looked poised to net the first goal of the game for most of the first half, but Smithfield brought their game up to another level in the second, defeating MSC 4-0 in boy's soccer.

came out of the gate strong, while controlling the tempo of the game. MSC possessed the ball for the majority of the first half and the Mounties were able to put a lot of pressure on the defense with their passing and attacks. But they squandered chance after chance and couldn't break through, despite being the aggressor throughout the first half of play.

Paolo Roche ran the offense beautifully for the Mounties, setting up multiple scoring chances for his teammates. There were several 2-on-1 opportunities, but Tim Stein and Evan Traumuller weren't able to convert on them.

Smithfield had some chances as well. Timothy Cabral had his shot deflected by the goalkeeper and hit the crossbar. Mark Marino pushed a shot wide while he was all alone with only the goalie to beat. Despite not being able to score or get much going offensively, and being mostly outplayed, the Sentinels went into halftime without a deficit, and as the final result would show, plenty of confidence that they could turn things around.

The Sentinels changed gears in the start of the second half and were tenacious in their pursuit of the ball, making it difficult for the Mounties to clear it out of their zone. Smithfield was putting a ton of pressure on MSC, but a point blank shot from Kelechi Agwunobi went wide, and a header in front of the net from Mark Marino sailed over the top of the goal. These near misses only seemed to fuel the hunger of the Sentinels in their pursuit of their first goal.

Smithfield hit the post one more time before Joseph Pate got ahead of the MSC defense and beat Austin Archambault to bring the score to 1-0. The Sentinels would score their second goal only moments later when Connor Bouchard executed perfectly on a free kick from his own territory, finding Marino for the header.

The Sentinels got another goal from a scramble in front of the net, and Marino scored off of a rebound to make it 4-0. That score held as Smithfield's dominant second half propelled them to victory.

"They wanted it more. They have an unquenchable hunger for the ball," said MSC Head Coach Miles Henderson, speaking of the Sentinels' second half performance. "They beat us to every ball. They played harder than us. They played more physical. It was tough to keep up."

The intensity of the defending champs was too much for the Mounties to handle, and Smithfield improved their undefeated season to 6-0. MSC, with a record of 4-3 for the season, will take on Mount Pleasant at home this Thursday.