Spartans get the best of Millionaires, move to the top of county

GREAT BARRINGTON – The Monument Mountain boys’ soccer team, under Head Coach Matt Naventi, has proved up to this point that they are the team to beat in Berkshire County, as they handled the Millionaires easily last Thursday, 2-0.

The conditions were sloppy as the rain pelted both teams through the first half, however a beautiful goal by Emil Ghitman-Gilkes from 20 yards out helped the Spartans improve to 6-0-1.

Ghitman-Gilkes nailed a one-timer from 20 yards out into the corner of the net, from a pass left behind by attacker Lucas Wartella, leaving Lenox goaltender Trevor Hathaway with no chance at the save.

“It was a couple of quick connecting passes,” said Naventi. “It’s funny because we trained something similar to that yesterday from 18-20 yards out. It prepared us to take a first touch and shot; Ghitman-Gilkes hit a perfect ball and found the back of the net.”

It would be all the offense the Spartans would need against Lenox, as the Millionaires struggled to find their finesse passing game due to the wet ball and weather conditions.

“Defensively, I think we were pretty comfortable with what we knew they had,” said Naventi. “We shut down their mid-fielders – their two most dangerous players – and I thought we did a solid job of it.”

Lenox’s first shot of the game came at 14:55 left in the first half, as the rain created a sloppy field causing all sorts of problems moving the ball for both teams.

“It got sloppy at times due to the weather,” Naventi said. “We got out of our game a little bit.”

The Spartans’ game involves using their team speed, lead by attacker Nick Maseiro, a track star who tries to play over the top of the defenders to win 50-50 balls, often running through and around opponents to create scoring opportunities.

“We tried playing indirect and two forwards over the top and not using our feet to play side-by-side,” Naventi said. “We play three center-midfielders and two outside backs that run through the midfield and if [Lenox] doesn’t compact themselves defensively through the midfield, it creates a lot of problems.”

In the second half, Lenox’s Andrew Vickery, Seamus Ryan and Abdul Henaidi began to create some pressure on Monument, but Vickery missed on a breakaway with 33 minutes left that appeared to be the Millionaires’ best scoring opportunity.

The Spartans countered by adding an insurance goal with 6:24 left when Chris Peretti made a move on a defender before beating Hathaway one-on-one, for an easy unassisted goal and the final, 2-0.

The difference for the Spartans in the second half was their back defensive line led by junior Bobby Kinne, who was a wall, clearing the wet ball away from harm’s way against Lenox’s aggressive forwards.

“[Kinne] did a very good job,” said Naventi. “He wasn’t feeling well and we could see he got a little fatigued – we made a couple of bad decisions with our backs but what gets by one doesn’t get by the other.”

With Mt. Greylock tying Lenox 1-1 on Monday, the Spartans have a clear path for the county crown the rest of the way.

“I am comfortable of what we have and what we need to be successful and I am sure they are planning to get us,” Naventi said.

Posted by Tim Davis on October 11, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry