Boy's Soccer: Villa Novans Beat the Mounties in a Cross-Town Battle

A crowd of 200-plus was on hand to watch the first regular game of the season this week, a renewed soccer rivalry between Woonsocket and Mount St. Charles. 

The first half opened up with both teams trading scoring chances on the Mount St. Charles field. Woonsocket had three shots in a one-minute period, ten minutes into the half. Alexis Decastro was able to get one past past the goalie but it trickled just wide. The next drive to get past the goalie was booted away by a Mounties defender. 

MSC had a few scoring opportunities turned away by Villa Novan goalkeeper Kory Lawrence, who stopped drives on two separate ocassions by Matthew Gilson.

Goalkeeping and defending was the real story of the first half for both teams. Woonsocket's Lawrence had a couple go over his bar and stopped all shots in the first half. MSC goalie Geoffrey Cicatiello, meanwhile, had a huge save in traffic at the end of the half. 

Matthew Lalhutti and Connor McCarty did a great job of deflecting and preventing Woonsocket from getting many good looks at the net. The Villa Novan defenders followed suit, allowing Woonsocket to outshoot the Mounties in the first half, although there was still no score in the game.

Late in the half Newton Kittavong got a yellow card for lingering in front of the opposing goalie box on goal kicks. He let his frustration from not capitalizing on earlier scoring chances get to him.

The Mounties came out fired up in the second half and dominated the time of possession for the rest of the game, but the Villa Novan defense was stout, not allowing a goal. Evan Traumuller, who scored two goals in the Mounties opener, drove a ball short side but Lawrence made a sprawling save to keep the tie intact. A minute later Traumuller had a header that got past the goal but was kicked away by a Woonsocket defender. Paolo Roche and Timothy Stein also had two shot attempts that were turned away by Lawrence. The Mounties had eight unanswered shot attempts in the second half before the Villa Novans got an attempt on a transition play.

After the relentless Mountie attack, Newton Kittavong got the ball ahead of the pack with two defenders to beat. Kittavong turned his back to them and faked both ways, turned, and fired one through both defenders, beating Cicatiello in the left corner of the net to break the scoreless tie.

After surrendering the lead, the Mounties played frantically the rest of the game and weren't able to score a goal against the Villa Novan defense. Late in the game, Kittavong got another opportunity ahead of the pack and netted his second goal.

"He didn't have many opportunities but he took advantage of the two he did have and put them in," said Woonsocket Coach Andrew Rao.

The clock ran out and Woonsocket took the victory over Mount St. Charles 2-0. 

The Woosocket defense and the resiliency of their star, Kittavong, gave the Villa Novans the road victory in their first game of the season. 

"Tough Competition for us. It's that city rivalry and I've got to complement those kids. They played their guts out, they played really hard. Both teams did. It was a fun game to be a part of," Mount St. Charles Coach Miles Henderson commented.

The teams will meet again on October 10 for what will surely be another exciting and well-attended game, as this rivalry is alive and well in the City of Woonsocket.