Spartan boys’ soccer kicks Lee where it hurts

Lee’s Luke Murphy and Monument’s Bobby Kinne fight for a loose ball during the Spartan’s 8-0 win.

LEE – Monument Mountain looks poised to be one of the better teams in Berkshire County as they steamrolled past Lee on Tuesday afternoon, 8-0, following up with their 2-0 win over Pittsfield High in their opener.

“I didn’t know what to expect from Lee,” said Monument Mountain Head Coach Matt Noventi. “Two years ago they had a solid team, and last year they did too, I know they had some players missing – they are just a little off right now.”

“A little off” was an understatement, as the Spartans ran out to an early 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, causing Wildcats Head Coach Matt Kollmer to call a timeout and scold his team for not showing adequate effort and heart.

“I felt [we] came out flat with no heart at all, and you can’t do that against a team like [Monument Mountain],” Kollmer said after the game. “We are better than that, they are a really good team and a really solid team, they have a lot of speed and possession but at the end of the day we should be playing the same type of soccer.”

Despite missing Lee goalie Heamon Williams, freshman Nick Wood made some key stops but couldn’t manage to keep ultra-fast attacker Nick Maseiro from finding the back of the net early and often.

Maseiro had two of the first three goals in the opening 10 minutes before finishing with four goals on the day.

“He is so fast and he reads players defensively so well that if a defensive player gets flat-footed for a second he can pick up on it,” Noventi said. “We can put him on any position on the field and he can hurt you.”

Despite the ability of Maseiro to score, Jason Laramee, Aidan Newey, Smit Mahida, Daniel Huertas and Bobby Kinne all controlled the midfield for the Spartans from the top to the back, with outside attacker Weyessa McAliister being able to control and match the speed of fellow track star Maseiro.

“Most of the time we have guys up top who are really fast and teams have to respect that, but throughout the midfield and the other guys we are really technically sound,” Noventi said. “So while they have to respect our speed, they have to respect our second option too, it keeps other teams off-balance.”

For the Wildcats, Kollmer emphasized pride during his timeout, and for the rest of the game Lee turned the momentum around the best they could limiting the scoring opportunities the rest of the game despite the 8-0 score.

“I think if you take pride in what you are doing you won’t get walked over,” Kollmer said. “I preach pride a lot, so when this happens and they get down 5-6 goals they are continuing to fight on, they just didn’t want to be that team that gets rolled over.”

The one bright spot on the day for Lee was Wood, who as a freshman continued to battle in net and made some diving saves in the second half to keep the scoring to a minimum.

“I am really proud of him because he has taken some lumps and some bad situations and he has handled it pretty well,” Kollmer said.

Posted by Tim Davis on September 13, 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